The Dec. 19 press conference announcement of Knesset member Amir Peretz's candidacy to head the Labor Party was expected. His sharp barbs about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leading Israeli society in a discourse of division and hate that could cause civil war were also familiar. The same can be said of his promise that as Labor's leader, he will bring about a “healing of the divisions” and as a prime minister promote a “policy of social justice while striving for a diplomatic agreement and peace.”

Although everything Peretz said was expected and familiar, the former defense minister nonetheless succeeded in piquing interest and bringing some relevance to a party that has been fading since the March 2015 elections and whose voters are abandoning its sinking ship at a worrying pace. The primary reasons for the interest in Peretz are that despite the desperate state of the party, there is still someone interested in heading its struggling platform, and that Peretz is the first to formally announce that he is entering the race. In addition, in May, Netanyahu’s fourth government will mark two years in power, a point in the political cycle that naturally turns attention to the next election and generates political hysteria. 

The other potential candidates for party chair warming up on the sidelines are Knesset members Erel Margalit and Omer Bar Lev and the current chair, Isaac Herzog, who for months has been in a Sisyphean battle for survival. Of the four, Peretz is the most senior, veteran politician. At 64, and a grandfather, this would be his fourth time running to lead Labor. His resume shows one big and surprising victory over the late Shimon Peres, in November 2005, and two honorable losses, in 2007 to Ehud Barak and in 2011 to Shelly Yachimovich. To Peretz's detriment are the two times he left Labor for another party, before returning home both times, and of course his painful political collapse driven by criticism of his leadership of the 2006 Lebanon war. 

Thus, although Peretz is not “new blood” and in many respects is a well-tread political figure, he succeeded in reviving a little bit of hope in the battered left in announcing his candidacy. It may be that Israel is at a point where so many parts of the political establishment, foremost Yesh Atid Chair Yair Lapid, are moving right, that the fact that Peretz is not winking at the right — neither in his rhetoric nor by means of vague diplomatic messages — makes him an interesting and refreshing candidate.