The childish ''show of force'' of Alon Hassan, the suspended chairman of the Ashdod Port workers' union who signed up hundreds of port workers as new Labor Party members to dismiss Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich, demonstrates how the party primaries method has lost its legitimacy and is on the verge of moral bankruptcy.
Hassan was forced to suspend himself on June 16, after it emerged that a private company he owns conducted business relations with the port. Yachimovich justifiably called on him to “go home” with the charge that he is harming organized labor in Israel. The response was swift. The offended Hassan hurried to declare war on the chairwoman and announced that he would take action to bring her down in the elections for Labor head. On July 11, Hassan showed up at the Tel Aviv Labor branch and submitted a package filled with several hundred forms of new Labor Party members — ammunition in his personal battle vis-a-vis Yachimovich.
