The polls on Friday will show slight increases for Labor and Habayit Hayehudi. This is what happens in the days after parties hold primaries. But the real deal will only begin with the interview programs and evening newscasts over the weekend. To fully flesh out the results of the primaries, let's look at how some of the involved individuals fared. Shelly Yachimovich was the big winner in the Labor primaries, and the failure of Eitan Cabel only made things sweeter for her. Cabel's fall to the 10th spot on the Labor-Hatnuah list was the result of an anti-Cabel campaign run by Yachimovich as well as Cabel's stumbling over his own feet, including his alliance with a number of unsavory individuals and the photo-op stunts he engaged in involving his dog and his young daughter. At the last minute, he expressed hope he would finish in the top three, but his arrogance worked against him. The high number of females on its list will give Labor-Hatnuah a unique position in the general elections campaign. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be forced to put a woman in the reserved No. 11 spot on the Likud list, even if he had originally wanted to choose a man. With six women in the top 20 spots on the Labor-Hatnuah list, Labor leader Isaac Herzog may have enough females, but he still needs a defense guru, in addition to the admirable Omer Bar-Lev (6th on the list). Shaul Mofaz? Amos Yadlin? Yom-Tov Samia? Anything is possible. Even lists with a clear focus on socioeconomic issues cannot ignore diplomacy and defense. Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon understood this, which is why he added former GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant to his list last week. Without an experienced military figure, the relevance and pretense of any political party are put into doubt. If Labor-Hatnuah does not find such a figure, it will have a weak case to make as it seeks to oust Likud from power. The Labor-Hatnuah list is fresh, young and has high female representation. But it also has weaknesses, as it lacks security credentials and various segments of the population, including new immigrants, are not represented. Other than Yachimovich, there are no prominent warriors against cartels and monopolies, even though Stav Shaffir and Itzik Shmuli have had some successes in this field. And there will be no fighters against white-collar crime, after former Israel Police official Moshe Mizrahi was pushed to the margins of the list. The general elections campaign has now kicked off in earnest.
