Israeli left looks to restore its image
Leftist activists are working to restore the image of the "left," but the key to power and to becoming a political alternative lies in the center and left parties’ ability to merge into a critical mass.
Attorney Eran Hermoni, a founder of the new left-wing movement Smola (Leftward), thought it was important that there be an Israeli flag at the Casa Veranda pub on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard. On the night of Sept. 9, the pub hosted the beginning of a new movement. Hermoni borrowed the flag from Beit Berl, where he works, and hung it temporarily on one of the walls in the dimly lit bar. It may have seemed out of place, but Hermoni insisted that it be there. He thinks the flag and other national symbols have been appropriated by the right and are considered exclusively theirs. Now is the time to bring them “back home.”
The Smola movement on the Zionist Israeli left was founded during the days of Operation Protective Edge; it emerged out of a real sense of distress experienced by Hermoni and his friends. They could no longer take the demonstrations of the radical left against Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.
