Israel’s Netanyahu has taken a page out of Trump's playbook as April election looms
Though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu historically differs from President Trump both in terms of personality and policy, the two have forged a strong alliance in recent months. The New York Times reports that Netanyahu, who faces a very real chance of defeat in Israel's election on April 9, has taken some campaign strategies right out of Trump's playbook.
Netanyahu reportedly refers to the criminal investigations surrounding him as the Hebrew equivalent of "witch hunt," Trump's go-to term for his own set of inquiries. The Times notes that both men also consistently refer to media reports as "fake news" — the Times reports that Netanyahu doesn't even bother to translate the words from English. A few weeks ago, Netanyahu truly embodied his American counterpart when he praised Fox News' Fox & Friends — one of Trump's favorite shows, which he tweets about often — for their coverage of his corruption case on Facebook and Twitter.
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Netanyahu has also embraced a unique blend of populism this election cycle, in a fashion similar to Trump, who was able to garner support from the alt-right, the working class, and evangelicals in 2016. Netanyahu has appealed to voters from ultra-Orthodox backgrounds, secular Russian immigrants, and those of working-class Mizrachi background (whose forebears lived in the Arab world.). He has also recently forged an alliance with the racist anti-Arab party, the Otzma Yehudit, which translates to Jewish Power. Read more at The New York Times.
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