Israel's opposition politicians head to 'political wilderness'
The decline of the big political parties and the rise of personality driven parties are harming Israeli politics by devaluing being in the opposition, where accomplishing change for the public good requires determination.
Much has been written about the many years that the late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spent in the political wilderness after his dismissal as defense minister in 1983 and later during the Oslo process, when he served as a Knesset opposition member. Appearing to be a political has-been, Sharon would sit in the Knesset cafeteria, often alone, yearning for a colleague or a journalist to join him. Sometimes the sight of him there aroused pity.
Even the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin spent seven years as a member of the opposition, between 1977 and 1984. In 1977, he had been forced to step down as prime minister and leader of the Alignment Party (today's Zionist Camp) due to his wife, Leah, having an illegal foreign currency account. At the time, Israeli citizens were not allowed to hold accounts overseas after having serving abroad. The military chief of staff, during the Six-Day War, had to make do with being a regular member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Having penned an autobiography, Rabin, like Sharon, persevered in politics even when it seemed that his political career had run its course. Rabin and Sharon must have sat through countless tedious Knesset deliberations, given speeches no one listened to and fought tooth and nail in Sisyphean battles to win leadership roles.
With former Education Minister Shai Piron, from Yesh Atid, and Yisrael Beitenu member Sharon Gal having announced their resignations from the Knesset the first week in September, we would do well at this time to recall Sharon and Rabin, two personalities who ascended to the premiership after their political careers took a dive. The gap between the generation of giants like Sharon and Rabin, who never thought that serving in the opposition was beneath them, should give rise to a much more profound discussion than what the Israeli media engaged in after the Piron and Gal resignations.
Why do people who have recently been elected to the Knesset — Piron just two and a half years ago and Gal only six months ago — feel that the opposition is too small for them, for someone of their stature? Why does the parliament bore them and give them the sense that they have no power to influence Israeli reality from within the political structure? In this case, does it involve either of them having had to fight hard during the primaries to get the job, having simply been assigned to the Knesset slate by the leaders of their respective parties? Although comparing Gal to Piron would be an injustice to the former education minister, as Gal did very little during his short term, there is nonetheless a common thread in the sentiments they both described that prompted them to walk away from politics.
