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In his opening address to the winter session of the Sixteenth Knesset on October 30, 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced:“We are embarking on an election year, and it is natural for both interparty disputes and personal disagreements to increase. I call on everyone here to act responsibly and remember that life also goes on after elections.” 2 That same day an interesting item appeared in the daily newspaper Haaretz. It was titled,“New on the Internet: Funeral Arrangements Can be Made Gratis, and Without Leaving Home.” The article informed readers of a new website, Kadisha-Net, which provided all-encompassing advice and information about the burial process. 3 There was, in the end, a strong link between the two articles; the one detailing the coming elections and the intrusive nature of the Internet, accompanying us even unto death.

Very few subjects relative to Israeli politics have not been closely studied. The Internet, however, is one of them, especially its use by political parties during an election campaign. The 2006 general election was the first in which most parties set up websites to convey their political messages. The messages themselves, and their presentation on the websites, served as a channel of communication between campaign leadership, on the one hand, and supporters and Internet surfers, on the other. In some cases the sites were somewhat interactive. Web users could submit requests to party leaders. The parties were attempting to simulate the appearance of a lively political exchange even if this was not necessarily the case. Interparty political competition on the Internet, however, became an integral part of …