Meretz Party: victim of its own convictions
The left-wing Meretz Party suffers from a negative image among Jewish voters, but its greatest problem is speaking the truth and daring to criticize the government even at times of military conflict.
Yair Lapid, who went into politics riding the waves of the social protest of summer 2011, does not miss an opportunity to accuse the Labor Party of “leftism.” In a 2012 interview, the Yesh Atid Party leader announced: “I am not part of the center-left bloc, we are center, [Hatnua leader] Tzipi Livni belongs to the center, and Labor is a declared left-wing, socialist party.”
After long months with Livni in the most right-wing government in Israeli history, the day after she joined forces with Labor Party Chairman Isaac Herzog in December, Lapid said, “The elections will not be between right and left, but between right and center.”
Livni, who moved from the Likud to Labor, passing through the Kadima and Hatnua parties on her way, shies away from the word “left” like one trying to ward off a disease. The woman who was prepared to give up more than 90% of the West Bank is not prepared to give up the Israeli political center. Just after the announcement of the Hatnua-Labor unity deal, the minister who served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fig leaf, with the title of chief negotiator with the Palestinians, ordered Israel’s citizens: “From now on you must say — in these elections, it’s the center against the radical right.” One could assume that Herzog won't utter the words “I’m on the left,” at least until after the elections.
The new star, Moshe Kahlon, presents himself as Likud-retro. “I am moderate center-right,” declared the Kulanu Party leader in a speech Dec. 10 at Kinneret College. “[I am] a Likudnik with the views of a Likudnik, like [late Prime Minister Menachem] Begin was at the time.”
