Israel: Election Landscape

Between a presentation to the Society of Photographic Educators in New Orleans last week and a Bag visit to the University of Illinois this Wednesday, I’ll be a little briefer for the next few days. I did want to draw your attention, though, to this wonderful photo by Baz Ratner for Reuters.

There is a mountain of imagery on the newswire right now on the impending Israeli election. This, though, seems to strike the perfect note of irony. The first thing the photo does is draw an equivalence between the two major competitors, the Zionist Union on the left and Likud on the right. Like six of one versus half a dozen of the other. Then what it does is showcase them both “on the other side of the fence.” If there’s a resonance to the separation wall here, imagine that? … the Israeli political establishment framed as “the other.” Either way, there’s the sense of the Israeli politicians as isolated, as cut off, as out there. Just as much, there’s the sense that, as looming as their presence is and how much territory the Israelis have in hand, the leadership is lost in the landscape.

(photo: Baz Ratner/Reuters. caption: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni are depicted on Likud and Zionist Union campaign billboards in Tel Aviv, March 15, 2015.)