Modeling politics? Female fashion models’ transition into Israeli politics

Female celebrities and the mediatization of politics

‘Celebrities’ as a representative social phenomenon of our times have been the focus of much research during the last two decades. Most of these studies examined ideological or cultural aspects of the celebrity phenomenon, such as the impact of late capitalism and democratic discourse on the rise of celebrity culture (Dyer, 1986; Marshall, 1997; Rojek, 2001). Some studies within the ‘cultural approach’ have analyzed the link between celebrities and politics, emphasizing the complex negotiations between the icons’ political views, generic conventions, corporate interests and audiences’ preferences (Gamson, 1994; Street, 2002). Although these studies have emphasized the influence of celebrities as social actors, in most cases, the relation between celebrities and the different spheres of power remained vague. When analyzing the engagement of celebrities in politics, celebrity studies point out their ability to circulate conformist/critical messages and note the setting of consumer trends as their main influence on the public sphere (Dittmar et al., 1995; Turner, 2004). Despite the interesting concepts developed in these studies, it seems that most of them avoided dealing with the impact of celebrity culture on other spheres of power, such as the political system.

From a different theoretical perspective, Political Communication studies have pointed to the ‘mediatization process’ as a useful theoretical concept for describing the increasing permeation of media logic into the political sphere (Mazzoleni and Schulz, 1999; Schulz, 2004; Stromback, 2008). The attention of mediatization studies is focused mainly on how media logic impacts on the political system. The adoption of media practices by political actors, the management of political campaigns and the agenda-setting power of the media are among the most discussed topics in mediatization studies (Campus, 2010; Swanson and Mancini, 1996; Walgrave and Aelst, 2006). In addition, many political communication works on this topic tend to rely on quantitative data processing to explain a phenomenon without sharp borders and definitions, which requires a deeper attention to individual cases. From the perspective of this study, using statistics in order to analyze ‘Celebrity Politics’ seems pointless. ‘Celebrity’, at least until now, is not a registered occupation, so we would be unable to find the percentage of celebrities among the whole population. Celebrities, although or possibly because they are a phenomenon closely linked with the emergence of democracy and capitalism, are by definition an extremely tiny group (Marshall, 1997).

Contrary to Celebrity Studies, studies on the mediatization process tend to focus on professional politics, leaving out other forms of political involvement by non-professional political figures. West and Orman’s (2003) typology of celebrity politicians can be seen as a first attempt to dissect the phenomenon of the transition of media celebrities into the political sphere. However, despite their interesting insights, their work seems too descriptive, lacking a systematic analysis of the transition patterns from the cultural industries to politics.

Both Cultural Studies and Political Science scholars have examined the relation between gender and politics, but there seems to be a deep divide between these two disciplines. While the former highlights the intersection between female celebrities and hegemonic notions of femininity, such as the ‘virgin-whore’ dichotomist discourse (Cohen, 1998; Dyer, 1986), the latter tends to focus on different variables affecting female representation within political institutions, such as the correlation between party ideology and the presence of women on party candidate lists (Caul, 1999; Paxton and Kunovich, 2003;Van Zoonen, 2006).

From the point of view of this study, analyzing the transition of celebrities from the media to professional politics could contribute to closing the gap between theoretical developments in celebrity studies, political science work on gender politics and the analytical framework of mediatization, as developed by Political Communication scholars. Celebrity Studies offer a distinctive historical and cultural understanding of how the media shape and spread the images of popular icons. At the same time, such studies have made a significant advance in shedding light on the complex process of the transformation of media capital into other forms of symbolic capital. Decoding the mechanism through which media exposure is turned into effective political capital is, for scholars of Celebrity, a task that is still pending. In this sense, Celebrity Studies, as the field has evolved until now, can provide only a partial account of the migration of media stars to the political sphere.

Political Science studies may provide the analytical tools for comprehending how local political systems could encourage or dissuade celebrities from becoming professional politicians. A comprehensive understanding of the transition of celebrities to politics demands a consideration of a whole range of endogenous political factors that could affect the participation of media celebrities in politics. Institutional arrangements, practical political calculations of party leaders and inter-party dynamics can, as shown later, have a major impact on the recruitment of celebrities for public posts. In addition, work in Political Communication could be of great help in analyzing how the local media system interacts with the political sphere.

From the runway to TV and from the small screen to the Knesset: glamour as an electoral value in Israeli politics

Although she served as a member of Knesset (MK) for a mere 4 months, Pnina Rosenblum, a media celebrity and businesswoman, can be considered a pioneer among the former fashion models who tried to start a new career as professional politicians. After a short career as a fashion model and film actress, Rosenblum transformed herself into a media personality and businesswoman in the cosmetics industry. As other female celebrities have done before her (Murphy, 2010), Rosenblum selectively exposed aspects of her private life as a means of promoting her cosmetic products, attracting widespread and persistent media attention (Berkovitch, 1998: 34–42; Makover, 2002: 26–32; Zommer, 2005: 14). In 1999, Rosenblum ran for the Knesset with her own party, ‘Tnufa’ (momentum) and won only 3000 votes, fewer than necessary for passing the 2 percent threshold for entering parliament. In 2003, she ran as candidate No. 39 in the Likud party list. Likud won 38 seats; only after a Likud MK quit to join the Kadima Party did Rosenblum become an MK, and then only for a very short period (Brot and Yarkoni, 2008: 2; Brot and Yechezkeli, 2005: 5). Since then, three more former models – Yana Hudriker, Anastasia Michaeli and Orly Levi – have tried their luck as candidates for a Knesset seat, with two of them, Michaeli and Levi, successfully elected as representatives of the right-wing party Israel Beytenu.

Even though they are publicly known as ‘former models’, none of them had a particularly impressive career as a top model. Their careers were relatively short, mainly working for local commercial clients. According to Entwistle, commercial modeling is more connected with ‘popular taste’ and has relatively low status within the modeling profession (2002: 327–328). After their modeling careers ended, they turned to media activities such as cinema and television, but, again, they were far from prominent media stars. Both Anastasia Michaeli and Orly Levi were hosts of low-rating lifestyle television programs, Michaeli on the Russian-language television channel Israel Plus and Levi on the public Channel One.

The rise of lifestyle programs on TV since the 1990s has attracted the attention of several Communication/Cultural Studies scholars. Almost all of them drew attention to the construction of the host as an expert, focusing on their informal approach to viewers while offering guidance on conspicuous consumption (Brundson, 2003; O’Sullivan, 2005; Smith, 2010).

While their work on TV probably made these models relatively well-known public figures, there are good reasons to suggest that having failed to become prime-time media personalities, it was the peripheral position they occupied on the television schedules that spurred their forays into politics (Makover, 2005; Palter, 2008b). Couldry’s definition of media power as a ‘“meta-capital”, through which media exercise power over other forms of power’ (Couldry, 2003: 667) seems to fit the former models’ case since a relatively low-status position in the electronic media enabled them to move to a more central position in the field of politics. Judging from the wide media coverage they received after joining the political arena, it could be argued that it was their entry into politics which consolidated their celebrity status since it greatly increased their exposure as media personalities.

There are as yet no clear signs that the passage of former models into Israel’s legislative body will be a long-lasting phenomenon, or that former models play a significant role in the shaping of Israeli politics. Instead, we could make the claim that these models/politicians received extensive media coverage, particularly when compared to their parliamentary colleagues. The media portray them as an identifiable group among Knesset members, bringing their beauty and glamorous lifestyle to the parliament. Their interventions, initiatives, performances and failures in politics are almost always linked to the entertainment industries’ sphere and judged in terms of their physical attributes. ‘Beautiful Swearing’, ‘A Cosmetic Change’, ‘The Failure of the Blondes in the Knesset Election’, ‘A Beautiful List’ are some of the titles of articles about the performance of the models in the political sphere (Palter, 2008a; Brot and Yechezkeli, 2005). From the press coverage they received, one could argue that their presence in the political sphere seems to intensify the mixture of entertainment, news and politics, which, according to many scholars, is a global process that has gained visibility since the 1980s (Delli Carpini and Williams, 2001: 165; Thussu, 2007).

From the perspective of the model-turned politicians, there is an apparent tension between their desire to be considered ‘legitimate’ and ‘serious’ politicians and their enthusiastic cooperation with the media, reenacting postures and attitudes from their previous line of work. While in press interviews they emphasize their academic studies and communication skills, minimizing their career as models, the pictures attached to those articles portray them posing in stylish clothing, much like fashion icons. An interview given to the conservative daily newspaper Makor Rishon illustrates this apparently contradictory message: while the headline cites Anastasia Michaeli asserting, ‘I don’t want to be an ornament’, beneath it there is a huge close-up of her face, with heavy makeup and a sultry, sensual gaze (Bar-On, 2009).

The same ambivalent relation of attraction and rejection of the glamour of the models/politicians can be observed in the attitudes of other politicians toward their new colleagues. At times, it seems that other MKs try to emulate the models and the entertainment industry practices as a way to gain the attention of the media. New MKs modeling along with their ex-model colleagues for a spring fashion collection, a ‘Reality Show’ hosted by an MK for choosing parliamentary assistants and a project inviting celebrities to give a ‘one-minute-speech’ at the Knesset can all be seen as a clear sign of the permeation of entertainment logic into politics (Brot, 2009a, 2010; Lev-Adler, 2009). Conversely, disdainful comments by other politicians on their past as models were not uncommon, particularly after the participation of former models in controversial political decisions or exhibiting offensive attitudes and personal conduct within the Knesset (Brot, 2009b, 2012).

The phenomenon of female MKs posing with a stylish look for the media or emphasizing their sensual figure was not a new trend by any means and could not be directly related to the models’ move into politics. The main difference now was that the models’ participation in parliamentary politics brought them great attention from the media, covering them as media celebrities and taking media space away from other female MKs with a more sober taste, sometimes even forcing other MKs to emulate them in order to get media coverage. A special report in Yediot Aharonot dedicated to springtime is highly illustrative of this process. The article shows new female MKs modeling a new collection by top fashion boutiques. Each of the six new female MKs is presented in an individual photo accompanied by a few short lines with personal questions about the changes in their life after being elected. Below each section, there is a detailed description of every item of clothing that the MKs are wearing along with the shops/brand names.

On the front picture, four new female MKs are posing with flowing, flowery dresses on a background of a meadow in full bloom (Figure 1). Two of the MKs posing are former models Anastasia Michaeli and Orly Levi; the other two, Tzipi Hotoveli and Miri Regev, have a professional background, the former as a lawyer and the latter as the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) Spokeswoman. Both Hotoveli and Regev look awkward in the picture, but Regev, with her relatively heavy figure, looks particularly grotesque (Lev-Adler, 2009: 39–42). Alongside ethical questions that should be asked about public officials promoting private business interests, the whole piece generates a strong sensation of simultaneous consternation and amazement at the willingness of new and unknown politicians to expose themselves in bizarre situations in order to get media coverage. All the four ‘models’ posing in the picture are members of right-wing parties. In the following section, I attempt to explain why this was no coincidence.

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Figure 1.

From left to right, standing: Orly Levi (former model), Miri Regev, Tzipi Hotoveli. Sitting in front: Anastasia Michaeli.

The models and right-wing parties: a convergence between aesthetic and ideological values?

Although there are clear indications that most of the former models tried at first to start their political careers in centrist or even center-left parties, all of them ended up in right- and far right-wing parties (Bardenstein, 2008a; Verizon, 2008). When trying to analyze why the ‘models’ were almost inevitably channeled into right-wing parties, we can identify three possible factors affecting their choices: the recruitment dynamics of minor political parties, the strong correlation between ethnic identity and ideological preferences in Israeli society, and last and probably most decisive, the diverse and at times contradictory set of discourses, cultural values and signs, borne by the models as media celebrities. In this article, we try to show how the models, as media celebrity ‘texts’ (Dyer, 1986; Holmes, 2005: 18), are a better match for the political platforms and voter profiles of right-wing parties.

The failure of Pnina Rosenblum and Anastasia Michaeli to be selected as candidates at the top of the lists of the major center and center-right parties (Kadima and Likud) may be an indication of the limits and constraints celebrities face when moving to major parties. According to Rosenblum and Michaeli, the party leaders failed to fulfill their promises of granting them a realistic place in their party lists. This apparently happened because of the complex negotiations and conflicts of interest between supporter groups. In order to secure the support of major party activists, candidates must be seen as able to mobilize resources and grant privileges to particular groups (Hazan and Rahat, 2010; Hofnung, 2006). Being a celebrity candidate is probably a good starting point, but it is not enough.

When asked why other, almost anonymous female politicians were elected while she was not, despite her celebrity status, Rosenblum’s answer was simple:

Ruhama Avraham was Netanyahu’s secretary, so she personally knew all the Likud Central Committee members; Inbal Gabrieli had inner contacts within the Likud party. I am the only one who got there on my own. In the Likud party they choose you according to political calculations and not because of who you are. (Makover, 2004: 62)

In other words, what Rosenblum is telling us about her failed career in a major party like the Likud is that her media capital did not preponderate over other forms of capital, such as social or economic capital.

But the size and structure of small right-wing parties are not enough to explain the models’ engagement with conservative politics. There are some indications that left-wing parties do not envisage the models as valuable political assets for attracting possible voters. The case of Orly Levi, former model, TV presenter and the daughter of David Levi, a senior Likud Party figure and former Foreign Affairs minister, is probably a good example of the disentanglement between the models’ aesthetic values and public image and the ideology of left-wing parties. As a ‘heritage’ politician, the daughter of a moderate right-wing Sephardic prominent politician, joining a political party identified with Russian immigrants was not an obvious option for Levi. As stressed by Shumsky (2004), former SSU immigrants identified themselves with the Eurocentric Ashkenazi components of Israeli society holding in general negative views about Separadic/Mizrahi Israeli Jews. According to political journalist Michael Brizon, Orly Levi tried in vain to make her entrance in politics in center-left and left-wing parties, first in the Labour party and later in Meretz, without much success (Brizon, 2008). Despite living in a kibbutz and adopting a discourse on behalf of the lower classes, she ended up in a far-right Russian ethnic party.

After failing to be elected as an MK in a major centrist party (Kadima), Anastasia Michaeli was slotted into ninth place on the list of the far-right Russian ethnic party Israel Beytenu. Three places behind her on that list was Orly Levi, former model, TV presenter and ‘heritage’ politician. Despite the formal involvement of a party committee in the selection of Knesset candidates, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that party founder and leader Avidgor Lieberman played a decisive role in the recruitment of attractive female candidates and in their placement at the top of the party list (Bardenstein, 2008; Palter, 2008b). Both Michaeli and Levi were regarded as a counterpoint to the bellicose reputation of the party leader, softening his public image with their ‘feminine charm’. In addition to their glamorous looks, Michaeli was perceived as an attractive asset to seduce Russian immigrant voters, while Levi brought to the party her father’s legacy/heritage as a leading Mizrahi politician, moderating the party’s reputation as an ethnic Russian faction (Blau, 2008; Ilan, 2008).

In this sense, one can trace an analogy between the dynamics of small parties and the practices of modeling agencies. In the same manner in which managers and booking agents search for attractive models according to market calculations along with cultural considerations (Entwistle, 2002), small party leaders lacking large cadres of prestigious political figures seem more prone to recruit celebrities from outside the political system, to form an attractive list for voters. Much like fashion model catalogs, which combine an offer of ‘avant-garde’ aesthetics with more ‘conventional’ and ‘popular’ looks, Israel Beytenu’s leader confectioned his party list (Bardenstein, 2008b), incorporating into his party list both ‘serious’ politicians according to Israeli political tradition, that is, former high-ranking army and security force officers (Ben-Eliezer, 1997), and more ‘extravagant’ figures in political terms. The top four places on Lieberman’s list were granted to male politicians, two of them former high-ranking army officers with experience in public posts linked to the security apparatus, and two places, Nos 6 and 9, were granted to the former models (Palter, 2008a).

Recruiting media celebrities is not an exclusive practice of right-wing parties in Israeli politics. Shrunken centrist and center-left parties have drafted charismatic journalists to augment their dwindling ranks. Although television played a fundamental role in the attractiveness of these figures as political candidates, they do not represent a new phenomenon in Israeli politics. Since the early days of the State, prominent journalists have made their way from the media into politics and back to the media (Caspi and Limor, 1999; Meyers, 2007). Unlike the former models, the recent transition of journalists to centrist/center-left parties is not perceived as a break from already established patterns. We should ask, then, which specific values, cultural codes, discourses and signs make former models such alluring figures for right-wing voters.

Anastasia Michaeli and Yana Hudriker – bridging the gap between Russian identity and the hegemonic Zionist state ideology

According to Richard Dyer, the power of celebrities emanates from the general public’s perception of their ability to resolve fundamental contradictions in our society (Dyer, 1986: 30). Dyer’s assertion may have gone too far, ascribing too much power to celebrities and neglecting contested interpretations. Nevertheless, it still seems valuable for an understanding of Israeli fashion models in politics. I would argue that the model-turned politicians found their place in Israeli politics because they are perceived as capable of obscuring certain fundamental contradictions between the values and cultural codes of specific sectors within Israeli society and the State’s dominant ideology.

From the early 1990s until 2001, Israel experienced a major wave of immigration from the countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War, Israel absorbed nearly a million immigrants, who now constitute about 15 percent of the entire Israeli population (Al-Haj, 2004: 84). Among them, about 300,000 non-Jewish immigrants arrived as members of ethnically mixed households. While these immigrants were granted Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, and thus could not be counted among the most disenfranchised groups within Israeli society, they were nevertheless subjected to both implicit and explicit discrimination by the religious establishment, as well as by other Jewish ethnic groups (Al-Haj, 2004; Cohen and Susser, 2009).

Michaeli’s public image and political posture may be understood as following a well-established pattern of social identity construction among non-Jewish Russian women in Israel. According to Prashizky and Remennick (2012), the adoption of right-wing political views and militant anti-Arab positions, while embracing local culinary and religious traditions, is a common national identity construction strategy among Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel. In 2006, 3 years before Michaeli’s election to the Knesset, Yana Hudriker, another former model, former Israeli beauty queen and Russian-speaking immigrant, ran for the Knesset without much success as the fourth candidate on the far-right Herut party list (Bardenstein, 2006: 4–5; Galili, 2006). Although Michaeli began her political career in a moderate center party, in 2009, she joined Israel Beytenu, adopting a militant anti-Arab discourse, in much the same political vein as her former runway colleague Yana Hudriker.

When referring to Anastasia Michaeli, press articles and interviews highlight what in their view are unprecedented facts about Michaeli’s life and career. Born into a Catholic, ethnic Russian family, Michaeli immigrated to Israel in 1997 after marrying a veteran Jewish immigrant from Latvia. Two years later, she converted to Judaism, and 10 years after obtaining Israeli citizenship she was elected as an MK. Despite, or probably because of, her status as a new immigrant with a non-Jewish background, she habitually overemphasizes her commitment to Jewish religious traditions and uses aggressive discourse and attitudes against Arab MKs and Israeli-Arab citizens. Without ever losing or hiding her stylized figure, fancy dresses, careful makeup and hairstyle, Michaeli is consistently portrayed by the media in places or situations connected to Jewish religious practices. Surrounded by her husband and their numerous kids wearing huge skullcaps, at the traditional Passover dinner table in her home, taking her kids to religious schools or praying at the Wailing Wall, Michaeli’s public image seems to incarnate a complete conciliation between clashing ethnic and cultural identities and loyalties (Figure 2).

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Figure 2.

MK Anastasia Michaeli praying in front of the Wailing Wall.

Yana Hudriker’s failed candidacy under the wings of the extreme right-wing Herut party is another fascinating example of the encounter between Russian ethnic participation in politics, aesthetics values and right-wing ideology. As an 18-year-old immigrant from Kiev, Hudriker won an Israeli beauty pageant and developed an international career as a fashion model (Bardenstein, 2006: 4–5). In the 1999 general elections, she actively supported the Russian ethnic right-wing Israel Beytenu party, and for the 2004 elections she was slotted in the fourth place on Herut’s list of Knesset candidates. During that campaign, Hudriker participated in some highly controversial television and Internet campaigns, warning Jewish voters about the dangers of the demographic growth of the Arab population and the risk of the State of Israel losing its Jewish identity (Galili, 2006). During one scene, Hudriker appears disguised as a religious Muslim woman with a black burqa covering her from head to toe, with only her sharp blue eyes visible. Toward the end of the ad, Hudriker warns in Hebrew, spoken with a distinctly Russian accent: ‘Don’t wait for this to happen’, and as she takes off her costume and returns to her own blond hair and attractive clothes, she asserts, looking straight at the camera: ‘We need to build here a solid Jewish majority’ (Walla, 2006).

As could be inferred for the ad’s message, Hudriker is warning right-wing supporters that one of the risks of an Arab majority within the Israeli state is losing the Russian beauties to the Arab ‘rivals’. Hudriker was not elected to the Knesset, and she did not become an active politician. Nevertheless, her candidacy on behalf of the Herut party, much like Anastasia Michaeli’s performance in politics, illustrates the two main discursive messages conveyed by the Israeli-Russian models: Their ‘European-White’ beauty, and their role as women and mothers to strengthen the Jewish identity of the State of Israel.

A model to follow: reconciling traditional and modern womanhood roles in the political sphere?

Much of the media coverage of these models/politicians focuses on their role as mothers. Pictures of their pregnancies, and their children playing in their parliamentary offices, along with questions about the daily management of their household, are inescapable topics in media reports. Motherhood has appeared as a central issue in the former models’ public image in two complementary forms. First, it emerges as a question posed by the press about their ability to reconcile what are seen as incompatible tasks, such as developing a political career, mothering young kids and maintaining enviable looks. In the second form, it emerges as a political statement made by the former models about their capacity to deal with complex social issues because of their role as mothers. If the first statement presents the former models as ‘superwomen’, able to harmonize contradictory forces and expectations in the private sphere, the second form confines the models/politicians to issues and subjects commonly associated with stereotypical views of women’s interest and capacities.

Many of the academic studies dealing with the participation of women in politics have pointed to feminist ideology as a key factor affecting the representation of women in parliamentary democracies (Caul, 1999; Iyengar et al., 1997: 78–79). Contrary to common ideological trends among female politicians, Israeli former models have adopted a blatantly anti-feminist discourse as a widely shared strategy. When asked about their recipe for managing an ambitious political career, keeping pace with their familial duties and taking care of their physical appearance, they assume an extremely conservative position, reaffirming the stereotypical gender division of labor.

Even though Pnina Rosenblum’s life choices can be defined as being markedly different from stigmatized gender roles, she explains her method in the following words:

My secret is that I combine being a man at work and a woman at home. At work you must be determined, firm and direct, while at home you must be your husband’s little girl. You should be tender, charming, craving his attention. (Berkovitch, 98: 34)

A description of Anastasia Michaeli’s daily routine in parliament and at home also reinforces the message that it is possible to harmoniously combine motherhood and household tasks an ambitious political career and a glamorous look (Figure 3). A 36-year-old woman and the mother of eight children, Michaeli is portrayed by the media as a kind of ‘female MacGyver’ or ‘Superwoman’, who is able to fulfill her role as a politician while entertaining her kids in the office or doing physical activity while cleaning the house: ‘My tight schedule is my best diet. Instead of going to the gym, I wash the floor’ (Spector, 2010: 11).

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Figure 3.

MK Anastasia Michaeli participating in a parliamentary debate accompanied by her children (the original caption says: ‘Knesset Summer Camp’).

If the celebrity narrative is almost always presented as a ‘rags-to-riches’ success story, in the case of Israeli former models one should ask why, in addition to their professional economic success, the exteriorization of motherhood became such a central feature of their public image construction. We propose two interrelated answers to this question: one goes back to the formative period of the Israeli state and the other is rooted in the aftermath of the massive FSU immigration, which began in the late 1980s. According to Nitza Berkovitch (1997: 605–606), despite the strong ethos of gender equality in the formative period of the Israeli state, Israeli Jewish women were mainly constructed as mothers and wives. Women, Bercovitch argues, ‘were incorporated into Israeli society through their national mission of motherhood’. It is through their mission as mothers and wives of combat soldiers that they were integrated into the militaristic discourse on Israel’s national security.

It is within the Zionist national project of the inclusion of ethnic groups defined as ‘Jewish’, along with the exclusion of the indigenous Arab minority, that we can understand the former models/immigrants’ construction of their public image as ‘mothers = biological reproducers’ of the nation (Al-Haj, 1998; Yuval-Davis, 1993). Both Yana Hudriker and Anastasia Michaeli emphasized in their interviews and political campaigns the ‘demographic danger’ of the Arab population outnumbering Israeli Jews. We could argue, then, that by emphasizing their roles as mothers, they obfuscate conflicts and tensions with veteran Jewish Israelis, presenting themselves as guarantors and advocates of preserving Israel’s Jewish demographic majority.

Conclusion

The transition of former models into the Israeli political sphere can be understood as a ‘glocal’ phenomenon in which the general trends of merging between the entertainment industries and politics are transformed and adapted to the local culture and institutions. When examining the incursion of former models/television hosts into Israeli politics, we found three major factors influencing their successful move: (a) the former models’ appeal to their ‘audience’ – voters of the same ethnic and ideological extraction, (b) the campaign strategies of the minor political parties and (c) the convergence between the set of contradictory messages embodied by the models as public figures and the cultural and ideological values established in the formative period of the Israeli state.

Despite the fact that the former models were never real television superstars, and their programs were far from prime-time material or widely watched by Israeli viewers, their work on the small screen, along with their past career as fashion models, has turned them into well-known public figures among the Israeli Jewish population. Even though each of the model–politicians had, along with their physical attributes, other significant features which made them attractive to specific sectors within Israeli society, their glamorous looks and their links to the entertainment industries have remained the determinant form of symbolic capital in the construction of their public persona. While their participation in politics may indicate a permeation of the entertainment industries’ logic into the political sphere, we should bear in mind that this permeation is limited. After all, as of now, the former models do not occupy central positions in their parties, and their visibility in the political sphere is still linked to their past in the media. In this sense, we can understand/interpret some of the scandals and controversies surrounding their parliamentary work as an attempt to maintain or increase their media capital by keeping the media’s attention firmly focused upon them.

The huge numbers of Russian-speaking immigrants absorbed into Israel since the 1990s have changed the Israeli electoral map significantly, creating an acute clash between new and old political parties in their scramble to gain the immigrants’ support. It seems that within this particular political environment, the former models became highly attractive assets with which to seduce voters from the FSU. Minor political parties were considerably more successful in recruiting these models than older, more established parties because their inclusion in the party list depended more on the political decision of the party leader than on intra-party political processes. In the absence of well-established political cadres within the ethnic oriented parties, even peripheral media celebrities turned out to be effective bait for capturing voters.

The construction of the models’ public image as politicians is compounded by diverse and not always coherent layers of meanings and cultural references. These layers could refer to the actual global context of celebrity culture, and also to deeply rooted values, traditions and ideological positions regarding gender roles and national identity formation. The particular association of a glamorous look, a successful career and motherhood, aligned with a nationalistic and militaristic discourse, represents a unique combination of still-prevalent contradictory values from Israel’s past regarding gender roles and nation formation, as they operate within the actual context of consumer capitalism.