You are here

Plight of Israel’s left

May 30,2017 - Last updated at May 30,2017

Last Saturday an interesting and symbolically important event took place in Rabin Square, in the heart of Tel Aviv: tens of thousands of Israelis converged to join a rally, organised by the Peace Now movement, whose message was loud and clear: opposition to Israel’s 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory and support for the two-state solution.

It was the first public sign, in many years, that the beleaguered Israeli left was still alive.

The rally brought back memories of a once vibrant and influential leftist movement that included Zionists, non-Zionists, Jews and Arabs alike.

For a few hours on Saturday evening, participants relived the euphoria of the mid-1990s when an end to decades-old conflict between Arabs and Jews was within grasp, and when Palestinians could almost feel the taste of liberation and self-determination.

Déjà vu? Not quite!

The left was dealt a lethal blow in this very square at another peace rally, on November 4, 1995, when prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a radical Jew.

No one really knows exactly how this movement unravelled and why. But Israel’s mood changed.

Voters brought back in 1996 Likud hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu who formed a right-wing, anti-peace coalition.

The once dominant Labour Party was now on the retreat. Its
degeneration as a political force would continue for the next decade and a half.

The rise of the so-called “third way” parties would reshape Israel’s political landscape.

It would usher in far-right political parties that would rewrite the country’s political agenda and underline the demographic reconstitution of the Israeli electorate in a way that the country has not seen since its birth.

Labour joined the next three coalition governments: of Ehud Barak (1999-2001), of Ariel Sharon (2001-2006) and of Ehud Olmert (2006-2009), but its influence was quickly receding. It became a shadow of its former self, when it ruled Israel for generations almost uncontested, relying on the support of the powerful labour union, the Histadrut, and smaller leftist parties and movements led by intellectuals, business elite and security figures.

Historically, it was Labour governments that dallied with various peace initiatives, especially after the 1967 war.

But it was the conservative Likud, under Begin in 1977 and Shamir in 1991, that engaged in peace negotiations with the Arabs and later the Palestinians.

Begin secured a peace treaty with Egypt. Shamir’s participation in the Madrid Peace Conference was short lived and unsuccessful.

Rabin’s 1992 victory against Shamir allowed him to form a Labour-led government, one that eventually concluded the historic peace agreement with the Palestinians.

That represented the pinnacle of the pro-peace camp and his assassination marked its eventual decline.

Today’s Labour, now called Zionist Union, is a centre-left alliance that is led by the uncharismatic former lawyer Isaac Herzog and includes once Likud hawk and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who leads Hatnuah (the Movement) Party.

Its platform includes resumption of peace negotiations with the Palestinians and halting construction in some settlements.

Herzog is said to have exchanged letters with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, committing to full withdrawal from the West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem.

In the 2015 elections, the Zionist Union won 24 seats, making it the second largest party in the Knesset. It scored victories in major cities and suburbs, including Tel Aviv, and affluent and liberal areas of Israel.

Interestingly, Arab Israeli parties, running under a Joint List, came in third, with 13 seats in the 120-seat legislature.

But more important is that Netanyahu’s Likud remained in front,
with 30 seats, and was able to form a coalition with far-right parties supported mostly by settlers, Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews.

His key partners include Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu nationalist party and Naftali Bennett’s HaBayit HaYehudi Zionist religious party.

Netanyahu’s dependence on those two parties, which reject the two-state solution, for political survival has effectively disqualified him as a peace partner.

The Zionist Union has been criticised for either giving in too much to the Palestinians or for not being daring enough to cross the religious-ethnic divide and join forces with the Arab parties of Israel.

Together, at least theoretically, they can reinvent Israel’s left and present a serious challenge to the growing settler-Russian voter base in Israeli politics.

Instead, disgruntled Israeli liberals have seen their country veer violently to the right, departing from the secular-socialist-Zionist base that Israel represented for millions of Jews all over the world.

They are keen to point out that while Israel is governed today by a far-right ideology that borders on racism, intolerance and apartheid politics, the reality is that Israel is a divided country.

They point to the fact that US politicians tend to support these far-right policies; ignoring the other half of Israelis who do not want to be forced into making an ultimate choice between a democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Israel, and a Jewish but racist and undemocratic one.

Saturday’s rally brings into the equation the fact that Israel’s left, while on the defensive (in fourth place in a recent poll), remains a plausible alternative to the destructive, chauvinistic and self-serving ideologies of the far right.

While the former is unlikely to change course, it is the left that needs to reinvent itself, find a new common denominator and appeal to a wider electorate.

Its voice must be heard in Washington too, so that elected
officials there begin to understand that Netanyahu’s rejectionist position does not represent all Israelis.

 

 

The writer is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman.

up
26 users have voted.


Newsletter

Get top stories and blog posts emailed to you each day.

PDF