Many say that the campaign spots on television are extremely boring. May I suggest to them something much more interesting. Downright riveting! Instead of looking for what is shown, I look for and see only what is not shown. This is a whole lot more fascinating, because it attests to the national state of mind, at least in the view of the propaganda experts. For example:

Transfer. After the Israeli public saw with its own eyes what Transfer in Kosovo looks like, it was decided by the "National Unity" party hide this program. But the number two man on the list has espoused and continues to espouse that very idea. It does not bother Benny Begin, the number one man, in the least. It must be that famous honesty of his.

Benny Begin's candidacy for Prime Minister. The "National Unity" party, led by Begin, hasn't heard anything about it.

The Left. Quite a few parties are competing for the title of the Right. "The Wise Right" of the National Religious Party. "The Only Right" of Begin. "A Strong and Reasonable Right" of Rafael Eitan. To say nothing of the Likud itself. But the Left? Noone wants to be Left. It is mentioned only in Likud broadcasts to brand its enemies. the .

The Wye Agreement -- Never heard of it.

Settlements. The most burning issue in the country, the very cause of the halt to the peace process. The heart and soul of the ideology of the nationalist and religious Right. But with the exception of some split-second mention in National-Religious and Begin TV spots, the subject is entirely absent from the propaganda. Except for Meretz.

The candidates of the two big parties. The entire off-putting band crowding around Netanyahu is gone: Tsahi Hanegbi (he stars only in the broadcasts of his enemies), Doron Shmueli, Limor Livnat and the rest have hisappeared as if by magic. But the impressive Labor bunch has also disappeared: Ben-Ami, an electoral asset by general consent, Baram, Beilin (who stars only in Likud broadcasts), Ramon and Burg. Gone with the wind.

Dedi Zucker. He is the leader of the "Greens", but the Greens hide him completely. They hide the peace as well, which used to be Zucker's trademark. Their program says: "In the end, peace will come. It's only a matter of time. And in the meantime..." In the meantime let's deal with other issues. Peace, after all, will come of itself. Automatically. No need at all to fight for it.

The Prime Ministry. Many parties -- from Tommy Lapid and The Greens to Meretz and "The Third Way," to the weepy Penina Rosenblum, all say: "One vote for Prime Minister, one vote for 'our' party." In other words, it does not matter who you vote for as Prime Minister; the most important thing is our party. In my opinion, any party that does not endorse a specific candidate for Prime Minister must not be given any votes, since it is unclear whom it would support in the Knesset.

Tommy Lapid's views. He curses the Haredim. That is now popular. He does not mention other religious groups, as that seems to be less popular. But in particular, he keeps silent about his own views. On the TV talk-shows his extreme rightist views used to be very prominent. Those are now absent in the campaign spots.

Arafat stars only in Rightist commercials. In "One Israel" (the new name of the Labor party) -- silence. "One Israel" treats him as a dirty secret. They show Rabin shaking hands with King Hussein. But with Hussein even Limor Livnat could have made peace. Israel kept him in power for over 45 years. Rabin's greatness and uniqueness was in making peace with Arafat. For that he was murdered. In hiding his historical achievement, "One Israel" has murdered him for the second time.

The Arabic language. In practically all of the TV spots there are Russian subtitles. But with the exception of the communist broadcasts, the Arabic language is absent.

Then, just what is present in these broadcasts? There is one thing which is putting its imprint on the elections and which reflects the immense change that has taken place over the past few years: The big counteroffensive by the secular bloc against the religious bloc has begun. Until recently, the situation was one-sided: The religious cursing and humiliating the secular. Now we see a few parties -- Shinui, Yisrael B'Aliyah, Meretz and a little bit of One Israel, who are hoping to capitalize on the increasing hate of the secular for the religious. Just as Deri is capitalizing on the hate of the religious for the secular.

A wise Rabbi would have advised the religious to lower their profile and temporarily halt their campaign of robbery of the state coffers. But that can't happen. The internal competition within the religious camp prevents any moderation. In the next elections this could be the central theme.