Late yesterday evening my sister phoned me (she lives in Kfar Saba)...apparently Mitzna personally phoned my brother in law at work and attempted to call my sister (her cellular phone happened to run out of batteries when he called) to try to persuade them to vote for Labour.
I was a bit skeptical at first when my sister called me (I asked them how they knew it was really him), but it seems that the father of someone who works with my brother in law is up in the Labour party and he heard from his son that my sister and her husband may be persuaded to vote Labour if personally called...
I talked to my brother in law today and he explained the short conversation...
Mitzna called and asked my brother in law who he was going to vote for...He replied that he was planning on voting Meretz...so Mitzna asked him why he wasn't voting Labour. My bro in law said that he was very worried that Labour would rejoin a coalition with Sharon after the elections...Mitzna said that he promises that in no way would that happen and my bro in law replied that while he believes Mitzna, he doesn't trust many of the others in the party (Peres, Ben Eliezar, etc.)...My bro in law says that Mitzna at this point said something like 'I understand your problems with them, but they are a minority and I wouldn't let them get there way' (something on that line, my bro in law said that it sounded like he didn't like them either). At the end of the conversation my bro in law said that he wasn't promising, but he wasn't going to rule out Labour (he voted Meretz in the end today)...then Mitzna asked for other numbers of friends/family that he thought would perhaps listen to him and vote Labour... he gave my sister's phone number, a couple of friends, and didn't have my number at his work...
Apparently, Mitzna also called them...
Today on the Israeli news, there was a short item showing Mitzna, Shimon Peres and Dalia Itzik calling up wavering-voters to persuade them to vote Labour...(so that verifies that that it happened).
Maybe I am ignorant, but I can't imagine Gore or Bush personally calling people to beg them to vote for them (but actually there is something quaint and pleasant about someone running for Prime Minister realizing (in the end) how much he needs individual voters)
Anyway, then I heard on the news today that there is likely to be less than a 70 percent turnout at the poles ( low for Israel), however there was news that one of the main Tel-Aviv highway interchanges was completely clogged today due to the fact that 15,000 people were all trying to go shopping at IKEA today.
Bryan
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