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Heavy lifting in the immigrant event By Lily Galili Tags: israel, Tzipi Livni, Kadima  Vitali Zhukov is Shaul Mofaz's man in Holon - the main vote-recruiter among Russian-speakers there for the candidate for Kadima leadership. Zhukov (apparently a distant relative of one of the Red Army's leading commanders during World War II, Marshal Georgy Zhukov) is certainly not Mofaz's top vote-getter when it comes to those voters: That title belongs to Boris Gitterman, who has so far managed to persuade 1,500 registered Kadima members to cast their ballot for Mofaz in the primary next month. Nonetheless, Zhukov, 34, certainly qualifies for the title of a major heavyweight vote-recruiter. Indeed, in the 1993 world weightlifting championships, where he represented Russia, he lifted 230 kilograms. Today, eight years after moving to Israel, he works primarily as a trainer, and thus focuses much of his voter-mobilization efforts on athletes: While preparing them for Israel Weightlifting Federation competitions, he also tries to convince them that "Mofaz is your man." "Athletes hang around in groups that share the same kind of bond you see in a military unit," he explains. "Power is important to us, so is a person's biography, and a trainer has special status. When the Soviet Union fell apart and Russian athletes had no idea what they should do next, they consulted with their trainers." Advertisement Anyone interested in seeing Zhukov at work is invited to visit Mofaz's campaign headquarters for the Russian-speaking community - that is, if you can find it. It is somewhere in Givatayim, and persisting in the treasure hunt to get there rewards one with a stunning vision: a red structure, that is plastered with posters praising the candidate's skills in the realm of national security, and that looks like a military barracks. Yet one more bit of evidence proving that you can take a man out of the army, but you can't take the army out of the man. Once you arrive, entry into this top-secret facility is "mission impossible." The privileged few inside must punch a secret code into an electronic panel each time they move from room to room. This is not an example of some public-relations show - quite the contrary: It is the very essence of his campaign. Because Shaul Mofaz is not "Mister National Security," he is the very quintessence of national security. And that is how his bustling Russian-speakers campaign headquarters wants to market him. Referring to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, David Eidelman, who serves as a consultant at the headquarters, offers this comment: "One of the major errors of Tzipi's campaign headquarters is that they are trying to market her. That's not what we do here - we are marketing security, at the national, personal and societal levels." So far the people here can pride themselves on at least one achievement: They have created the impression in Israel's Russian-language media that "all the Russians in Israel are with Mofaz." Relying on his past, extensive experience in Labor primaries and as Kadima's spokesperson for Russian-speaking Israelis, Eidelman elaborates: "Even if everyone hates a party leader, Russians detest backstabbing. I saw that kind of thing in Labor and the Likud, and I think that Livni is paying a heavy price for her attitude toward [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert. Russians value loyalty highly." Until recently, such insinuations have gone unchallenged. However, now that Livni has set up a special campaign headquarters of her own, targeting new (and not-so-new) immigrants, the picture is starting to change. Special interest No one has any doubts that the winner of Kadima's primary will be Israel's next prime minister. Immigrants from the former Soviet Union have a special interest in this campaign: They constitute more than 20 percent of Kadima's registered voters, and thus this new party is giving them the opportunity not only to participate but also to be partners in molding its image and platform. The atmosphere recalls another era not too long ago - when this community had its own ethnic party, Yisrael b'Aliyah (which disappeared when it merged with the Likud in 2003). Furthermore, Israel's Russian-language media, Internet sites and blogs are taking a surprisingly deep interest in the Kadima primary. The two leading candidates, Mofaz and Livni, are running campaigns with positive messages and motifs that are incredibly similar. Simplicity seems to be the watchword in both candidates' campaigns, voters say. "Mofaz is the epitome of simplicity," one supporter enthuses. "When he talks to you, it's without any pretensions," raves another Russian-speaker, "and when he schedules a meeting, he is right on time." "You wouldn't believe your eyes," reports a Russian-speaking campaigner, who attended a meeting in the foreign minister's home, "if you saw the amazingly simple apartment Tzipi lives in. Frankly, I was stunned by the lack of frills." It is no easy task to find flaws in the rival camp. Of course, there is the usual trashy fare of any political campaign: mutual threats, gossip, mudslinging. After the public has become accustomed to affairs with cash-stuffed envelopes and fake receipts involving Prime Minister Olmert, copywriters are hard-pressed to think of something really juicy. Since the Russian-speaking campaign headquarters of both camps are so active, they are the sources of a flood of anecdotes, feeding Web sites and blogs that are totally unfamiliar to Israelis who are not native Russian-speakers. For example, concerning Livni, one Russian-Israeli blogger writes, "She truly represents a corruption-free style of government, together with [Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Head] Tzachi Hanegbi and [Finance Minister] Roni Bar-On." 'Like Golda' In an interview on a Russian-language television station, Mofaz was asked whether, as someone who was born in Iran, he would be capable of ordering an attack against Tehran. He said he would have no problem making such a decision, whereupon the interviewer declared that this candidate was not torn by any issues of dual loyalty. And there is always Golda - i.e., Meir, Israel's first female prime minister. "Tzipi is like Golda," her campaign HQ supporters say, with a sparkle in their eyes, "perhaps even like Margaret Thatcher. Tzipi is a strong woman. Golda also had no experience in the field of national security; however, when [then defense minister] Moshe Dayan and [former army chief of staff] Haim Bar-Lev were reluctant to mobilize the reserves in the Yom Kippur War, Golda took the courageous step of making that decision." Mofaz's campaign headquarters also frequently mentions Meir: "Golda was a woman," his campaign staff notes, hinting at what they think of a scenario with Livni at the helm, "but just remember what kind of war we became involved in back then." In Russian, the statement sounds even more powerful. Even the claim detractors have made that Livni would be a great prime minister for a country like Sweden or Switzerland, can, with a little imagination, be used advantageously. In a closed meeting of campaign coordinators who work with new immigrants, one told the foreign minister: "I think it would be terrific if you could turn Israel into another Sweden or Switzerland." That meeting, in Tel Aviv last week, was in fact primarily a show of strength and a response to the criticism leveled at Livni for failing to maintain strong ties with Israel's Russian-speaking community, formerly a major concern when she served as immigrant absorption minister. The candidate has explained that her distancing has nothing to do with ethnic issues, but stems rather from her busy schedule and her personality - both of which prevent her from getting close to any particular group, irrespective of its identity. This explanation falls on deaf ears in the Russian-Israeli community. Somewhat belatedly, and to rectify this situation, Livni established an immigrant-oriented campaign headquarters, which intends to take the media and the community by storm, simultaneously. Indeed, a kinder, gentler candidate attended the meeting with the coordinators of her "Russian campaign," and she even put her agenda and record on the table for them to judge. Livni also recently visited the editorial offices of Israel's large-circulation Russian-language newspaper Vesty, and agreed to having a correspondent from the Russian TV station accompany her for an extended period to put together a report. In it, she could be seen ordering, "Turkish coffee, one teaspoon of sugar, and please make sure that the water is very hot" - reminiscent of the TV commercial with an Israeli pilot making the same demand. Apparently when a woman expresses a similar preference, the image-makers have a problem. "She's too tough," argue her critics, while her fans pipe up, "No, she is just a perfectionist." Commentators from the Russian-speaking community are not sure how to answer the question of whether being a female candidate is an advantage or a serious drawback for these people, who grew up in an ostensibly egalitarian society in the Soviet Union. Deep in their hearts, they seem to feel that it is a disadvantage. However, observes Nada Chozoy, who heads Livni's Russian-language campaign headquarters: "No general, not even a highly admired one, ever became a prime minister in the Soviet Union" - an obvious reference to Mofaz, a former IDF chief of staff (and she is right on this point). Some people would correctly say that a woman has never attained the status either. However, after an initial meeting with Israel's foreign minister, former Russian president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin pronounced her an attractive woman, and he's now a hero in the eyes of many of his compatriots in Israel. That comment was certainly a boost for Livni, who admittedly is a problematic candidate. "The Russian media in Israel are doing cartwheels to convince the public that only a general at the helm in Kadima will fit the bill," complains Chozoy, while a similar lament can be heard from Yulia Shmuelov-Berkowitz, a former director general of Vesty and of the Russian-language Israel Plus cable TV station. According to Shmuelov-Berkowitz, the media "makes their own rules." She believes the role of Kadima head and Israel's prime minister will be enhanced by the "sensitivity of a woman, who will have the good sense to surround herself with generals when she needs to." Shmuelov-Berkowitz adds that "correspondents in the Russian media [in Israel] can write whatever they damn well please because they always operate on the assumption that no Big Brother is watching them. You can, for example, argue, without offering any evidence to back you up, that, if Livni is elected head of Kadima, she will become even more leftist." In her meeting last week with the Russian coordinators, Livni was, in fact, asked about her political leanings. "I am not any more of a leftist than Ivet (MK Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party) is. He himself is willing to consider a partition of Jerusalem." Lieberman is actually a wonderful ace up your sleeve in any discussion with Russian speakers. Although surveys of Kadima voters bode well for Livni, the gut-feelings index does not. In surveys conducted among the party's Russian speakers, a few weeks ago on Internet sites and TV, Mofaz comes out ahead. Nevertheless, his supporters are aware that when it comes to Kadima's potential among this community (i.e., among those who are not necessarily registered party voters), Livni has the edge. Meanwhile, the Likud's leaders are closely following the progress of Kadima's candidates. They would prefer to have Mofaz elected; according to polls recently commissioned by the Likud among Russian speakers, Mofaz has almost no support, while Livni's followers are not causing any alarm bells to ring at Likud headquarters. "Let's put it this way: Livni is not a threat - for either Bibi [Likud head MK Benjamin Netanyahu] or Ivet," one senior Likud member sums up the situation. Of course, everything could change overnight. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Sarkozy in Syria Visit will put the onus on Damascus to cooperate further on Lebanon. Shalit talks frozen Hamas' senior leader in Gaza blames Israel for breakdown of negotiations.

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