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Yossi Sarid, voice of Israel's left, leaves behind unfinished business

Former Meretz leader and Minister Yossi Sarid, who passed away Dec. 4, was an honest politician who dared to tell the truth, even in tough times for the Israeli peace camp.
FILE PHOTO 7JUN00 - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (L) sitting with the leaders of the Meretz party, Yossi Sarid (C) and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Eli Yishai (R) as a vote is taken sponsored by the opposition calling for new elections. Barak lost the vote with the Shas party voting against the coalition government. Today June 13 the Shas party quit Barak's ruling coalition government over educational funds it has not received. The 17-member Shas party Knesset members are expected to submit their res
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Former Meretz Party leader and Minister Yossi Sarid resigned from political life in late 2005, about three months before the elections that resulted in Ehud Olmert forming a government.

It was the culmination of a process that took place in stages. Two years earlier, Sarid had assumed responsibility for Meretz’s failure in the elections that year and resigned from the party’s leadership. In those elections, this important party on the left dropped from 10 Knesset seats to just six. The Camp David meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2000 had just ended in failure, and the second intifada was raging. Buses were exploding in the streets of Israel’s cities, and the public, despairing of the peace process with the Palestinians, handed the government to Ariel Sharon and the Likud Party.

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