The list of Labor Party candidates elected Jan. 13 to run for the 20th Knesset represents, first and foremost, a deep and dramatic shift within the party’s internal structure. It shows the decline of the main party power politicos, who determined fates through their megadeals and drew up political hit lists to take out their rivals. In contrast, the current list prioritizes free voters, who owe their allegiance to no one.
The election of two young leaders of the 2011 social protest movement, Stav Shaffir and Itzik Shmuli, to the fourth and fifth slots respectively — far ahead of Labor Party election committee Chairman Eitan Cabel — is one of the most prominent expressions of the party’s changing DNA. The disappearance of such enduring figures as former Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and the former chairman of the Histadrut Labor Union Ofer Eini from the primary landscape is yet another example of the end of the era of the “voting box commanders [where party politicos gathered mass voters through unions or other methods].” The new breed of politics has taken over the veteran party.
The chairman of the party, Isaac (Buji) Herzog, who rose from the “Old Order,” can be satisfied and take pride in his fresh, young list with its social democratic orientation, firmly rooted in the diplomatic left. He can take pride in the party’s lively, democratic and clean primary process, especially when compared with the monarchy-like parties that have sprouted up over the past few years.
But these strong points could also be Herzog’s Achilles’ heel on the day after the elections on March 17, once coalition negotiations begin. This could happen either in a situation where he forms the next government or in a scenario where he tries to join forces with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the framework of a national unity government or as a coalition partner. A decisively left-wing socioeconomic ideological orientation, coupled with an independent young party, most of whose members are not reliant on Herzog politically, could become a major headache for him on the day after elections. Will Knesset members Shelly Yachimovich, Shaffir and Mickey Rosenthal be prepared to sit in the same coalition as Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman? Would they sit with Shas Party leader Aryeh Deri, who served time in prison for accepting a bribe?
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