Netanyahu Fights ‘Bibi Fatigue’ as Young Likud Strays to Rivals

By Jonathan Ferziger Dec 29, 2014 10:00 AM ET

Crowding the rooftop hall at Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Benjamin Netanyahu’s aging campaign loyalists waited impatiently for his kickoff re-election rally.

When the three-term prime minister emerged half an hour late from a rickety elevator, they surged forward, reaching across a wedge of bodyguards to kiss, hug and pat the silver-haired leader popularly known as Bibi. Netanyahu, 65, waded through a septuagenarian scrum, gave a five-minute speech and departed.

Having served longer than anyone since Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu is struggling to reach beyond the party faithful to younger voters drawn to fresher faces, analysts say. With Likud in a neck-and-neck race with opponents in the polls, the man Time magazine hailed two years ago as King Bibi is putting his survival skills to the test in the March 17 contest.

“There’s clearly a level of Bibi fatigue,” Hebrew University political scientist Gadi Wolfsfeld said. “Times have changed, the economy has changed, but he’s using the same lines we heard from him 20 years ago.”

While housing and food prices are weighing on Israelis in this election, Netanyahu continues to emphasize the security issues that have been the foundation of past campaigns. The dangers posed by Iran and Islamist radicals are a more frequent theme than reviving an economy growing at its slowest pace since 2009.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-29/netanyahu-fights-bibi-fatigue-as-young-likud-strays-to-rivals.html