A few weeks ago, Knesset member Michal Biran — chair of the Labor Party’s Young Labor faction — found herself in the focus of media attention and the cause of a mini-storm on social networking sites when it emerged that she had signed up on a popular dating site. At the time, Biran bared her heart to tell everyone that she had decided to join the site after finding herself at age 35 with around-the-clock demanding work, no spouse and no family life on the horizon.

Part of the public viewed her openness as an expression of courageousness, while others viewed it as the cynical attempt of a new, relatively anonymous Knesset member to break into the public awareness. One way or the other, this is another expression of the new boundaries of Israeli politics on the heels of the generational revolution in the Knesset, after the last elections in January. While Biran has become a more familiar figure now as the result of the publicity, she still has not found a mate. But she says that at least she occasionally manages to find the time to date, simultaneous with her political and parliamentary work.

Biran has lived and breathed politics from a very young age, when she joined the Noar HaOved VeHalomed youth movement. She served as Knesset member Shelly Yachimovich’s parliamentary aide and was one of the leaders of the “Yachimovich camp” inside the Labor Party. Biran is identified with the social-democratic agenda and was one of the young Knesset members elected partly due to the social justice protest movement of the summer of 2011. Biran is a representative of the lost generation that finds it hard to make ends meet. She has a master’s degree in public policy with a specialization in pension funds. Despite her young age, this is one of the issues that most preoccupies and worries her. According to Biran, the generation that she represents exhibits less interest in the conflict with the Palestinians and instead is much more concerned about their grocery bills. Biran claims that the “leftist” label has long since become an epithet in Israel.