Intoxicating Scent of ‘Fascism’ Swirls Around Israeli Politics

(Bloomberg) -- She may have been trying for irony, but Israel’s justice minister just won the prize for one of the more outrageous acts of the country’s campaign season: A mock ad showing her spraying herself with a perfume called “Fascism.”

Ayelet Shaked, whose nationalist New Right party is flagging at the polls, was taking a jab at critics who call her a fascist for trying to weaken the country’s courts and strengthen the legislature. In the ad, she tosses her hair, fastens an earring and caresses a banister while floating down a stairway, while a voice seductively whispers, “Restraining the Supreme Court” and “separation of powers.”

She then languidly reaches for a perfume bottle that reads ‘Fascism” in English and mists herself. “To me, it smells like democracy,” she says.

“The next revolution is coming,” the ad says as she walks away from the camera.

The bizarre ad, unsurprisingly, was the stuff of talk shows and got hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter. Some noted that the irony was lost on Israelis who wouldn’t have understood it’s a riff on Saturday Night Live’s “Complicit” sketch, another faux fragrance ad pillorying Ivanka Trump’s role in her father’s government.

What’s left for many is only the jarring image of a bottle of “Fascism.”

“Do these people spend even one second thinking about what this looks like from the outside....,” wrote @emteess on Twitter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Teibel in Jerusalem at ateibel@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Paul Abelsky

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