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Three Sins of the Israeli Left

Polls predict that the Israeli left is bound to lose the upcoming elections, much because it failed to present a progressive narrative of Israel not inherently linked to the Peace Process, or to produce consistent leadership, writes Eyal Nadav.
Former centrist Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni holds a news conference in Tel Aviv November 27, 2012. Livni announced on Tuesday she would challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Jan. 22 election by running for office as head of a new political party she vowed would "fight for peace."    REUTERS/Nir Elias (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)

The most recent opinion poll published by Haaretz last week [Dec. 10] was especially depressing for the Israeli left.

The poll predicts that 49 out of 120 mandates will go to center or left-wing parties. In Israel, the party receiving the largest number of mandates is less important than the formation of party blocs that can assemble a coalition and a government. And this is an impossible task with 49 mandates. Close associates of Tzipi Livni and Shelly Yacimovich sounded more gloomy than ever this week, and mainly blamed each other — not Netanyahu, of course — for fragmenting the camp.

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