Would open primaries save Israel's left-wing parties?

"Political wheeler-dealership won this evening. If Meretz doesn't open up, it will simply cease to exist," said Meretz Party head Zehava Gal-On on March 14. Her disappointment and frustration were completely understandable. She was responding to a decision that day by her party's Central Committee to reject her proposal to hold open primaries for the party leadership.

Opposition to Gal-On's proposal was led by Knesset member Ilan Gilon, who also plans to run for the leadership of Meretz in the next election. Reports on Gal-On's defeat focused on the political significance of this infighting within Meretz. Unfortunately, the important debate over whether to open up the primaries was pushed to the side.

This is an issue that has gathered momentum among the Israeli center-left over the past few months. It even encompasses the Labor Party and the Hatnua Party, which comprise the Zionist Camp. Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni is pushing for open primaries for the entire center-left bloc, selling the idea as a kind of wonder drug to heal the crisis facing the bloc, which has been getting weaker over the past few years.

As chair of a small left-wing party with five Knesset seats, Gal-On is well aware that the future of Meretz depends on her ability to expand its voter base and reach more young people, more Mizrahi Jews and more voters from the periphery. She has been banging her head against the wall trying to do just this. Her attempts to get open primaries approved show how bold she is for two reasons: First, she is admitting that the current Meretz leadership is failing to break past the circles of the Ashkenazi left based in Tel Aviv. Second, she is putting her own position at risk of her own initiative.