There is one ad where Netanyahu is plays the role of a teacher who’s directing toddlers (he calls out them with the names of his opponents) to settle down in class to get work done. Then came part-two, Bibi-sitter (Netanyahu aka Bibi) where the incumbent PM again takes jabs at Labour party candidates and emerges as the calm and responsible baby-sitter you need. Likud has now gone one more step further with this ad. Featuring few jihadis in a car with a black ISIS flag fluttering asking for directions to Jerusalem, it drives home the message that the “Left will surrender to terror”. It was in fact only yesterday that an Israeli said to me, “The government instills fear in its people about the Arab nations to keep its people together and under check.” The ad is crass, yet powerful.

Israel’s far-right party, the Jewish Home party put out an ad where the leader of the party dressed as a secular Jew is seen profusely apologising for no apparent fault of his, when a waitress spills coffee over him or when some one takes away a cycle he was about to rent. The ad that mocks the Left ends with him saying “From now we are going to stop apologising.” These videos went viral and have got the Israeli media pondering about this childish campaigning trend that has surfaced over the last couple of months.

I find it rather superficial that ad campaigns are not addressing the core issues. All of a sudden, Modi’s name-striped suit debacle seems acceptable to me in the face of humor that has no meaningful content for its electorate. It is insulting that election campaign managers would imagine that mockery of other parties can convince the electorate to choose one party over another.