Israel’s Social Media Elections

Abstract

Social media has become a major tool to disseminate information, opinions and news, used for political campaigning and offering new opportunities for individuals and politicians alike. The Prime Minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu, has been particularly aggressive in his use of social media to gather political support. Considered as the great survivor of Israeli politics, that flourished in the atmosphere of social protests and emerged from the old political mechanism, he derives his power from social networks, using them as alternative media to the traditional networks. As the research demonstrates, social media has determined dramatic changes in the balance of political power, and although the main channels of information remain the traditional media, the exposure of the public to social media is accelerating with a wide unmediated public debate. With social media, newcomers in Israeli politics could also create a presence and rise to become renowned politicians. It is interesting however, that the veteran politician—Netanyahu—was able to take advantage of disseminate information over the Internet and become active on his Facebook page, including engaging Internet users in direct dialogue. The paper examines the use of social media by newcomers and veteran politicians in the last two elections and analyzes the way Netanyahu used social media to accomplish his political goals, including high involvement of the public and motivating record-high voter turnout to maintain his own reelection and the domination of the Israeli Parliament by the Likud Party.