TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Last week, the Israeli Labor Party appeared on the verge of extinction, with polls indicating it would not win enough votes in the next election to enter parliament. But after the election of progressive legislator Merav Michaeli as the new leader, the party shows signs of life.
Labor, home to the country’s founding leaders and for decades its ruling party, has begun to rise in opinion polls and Michaeli is determined to make him once again one of the main forces in Israeli politics.
Michaeli, a cheeky feminist, promotes a message that has rarely been heard in Israeli politics in recent years. It seeks social justice, equality for all Israelis and peace with the Palestinians. However, he will not rule out joining a coalition with right-wing parties, which is likely to hamper his agenda if the shared goal of ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is realized.
“You can’t agree with me ideologically, but what is clear is that I am here and I fight for equality and peace,” Michaeli told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I think Labor is not dead. It is essential to the future of Israel.”
His election seems to have given strength to Labor. But with many traditional voters leaving the party, she has the job cut out for her before the March election. Israel’s center-left camp is fractured and right-wing parties, led by Netanyahu’s Likud, remain dominant.
Opinion polls in recent days have projected that Labor led by Michaeli will win five seats in the 120-seat Knesset. That could jump in the next few days if, as expected, the smaller parties with little chance of entering parliament withdrew from the race before Thursday’s deadline. While the projections are well below Labor’s glory days, even a modest demonstration could turn Michaeli into a king in a coalition of medium-sized parties opposed to Netanyahu.
Labor led Israel to independence in 1948 and led the country during its first three decades, incorporating the most obvious Social Democratic values today in its universal health care, especially in the midst of the pandemic. Although he led Israel during the 1967 Middle East war and built the first settlements in the occupied West Bank, Labor signed the Oslo Peace Accords with the Palestinians and today favors a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Still, it has struggled to stay relevant in the past two decades as peace with the Palestinians came to a standstill, other options arose in the center-left and much of the electorate adopted the hard-line ideology. of Netanyahu.
Michaeli took over Labor after a difficult year when he entered parliament with historically low support. The party broke up after its former leader joined the Netanyahu government despite commitments not to do so, which expelled voters for life. Michaeli chose to stay in opposition and said he will never sit in a coalition under Netanyahu for a number of reasons, including his three corruption charges.
He believes his decision to stay out of government, combined with his message of social justice, will go back to voters.
“The fact that he has managed to lift Labor is still early, but I think people have more faith than is possible,” he said.
Michaeli, 54, has long been a recognized figure in Israel, working for years as a journalist and women’s rights activist before entering politics in 2013 as a Labor legislator. She is widely known for her alternative views. She shuns marriage, though she maintains a long-term relationship with a popular late-night television host, and says she has never wanted to have children in a society that has emerged from the biblical commandment. She is known for her all-black appearance, which she says aims to minimize her body and sexuality.
When he withdrew from the opposition, he promised: “We will not let the Labor party die.” Now at the helm, it will be tested whether he can deliver on that promise and stabilize a party that has six leaders since Netanyahu took power in 2009.
Yossi Beilin, a former Labor minister whose son challenged Michaeli in the leadership race, welcomed his election.
“The praise was premature,” he said. “Merav is smart and ideological and proved himself in the Knesset and was not tempted to join the last government,” he said.
Although she had never served as a cabinet minister, Michaeli has been an active legislator and a leading progressive voice in the Knesset, supporting women’s rights, LGBT causes and women’s rights, as well as seeking peace with the Palestinians.
His first step as leader was to withdraw the party from the current interim government, which caused the two Labor ministers to leave the party. She has promised equal representation for women on the party list. And it intends to rebuke the traditional Labor voter base, which largely fled to other less established parties.
Michaeli attributed the decline of the center-left to years of “incitement and delegitimization” by Netanyahu and the right. But he said some mistakes were self-inflicted, such as the party that repeatedly joined right-wing governments whose values were at odds with their own.
“They became facilitators of right-wing governments and then it is clear that the party is losing its credibility and its ability to be an alternative and that needs to be rebuilt,” he said.
Tal Schneider, political correspondent for the Times of Israel, said Michaeli has demonstrated the political capacity needed to push the party in a new direction. But he said Michaeli’s victory does not change the chaos of Israel’s center-left camp.
“The problem is deeper,” he said. “But there is no doubt that it saved the party from extinction.”