Don't let it be further marginalized - Haaretz

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Wed., December 26, 2007 Tevet 17, 5768

Israel Time: 03:32 (EST+7)

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Don't let it be further marginalized

By Avirama Golan

Tags: politics, Meretz, Israel

The contest over leadership of the Meretz party, far from the majority of the public's eyes, is a sad reflection of the depleted state of the Israeli left. Its political principles, which earned it hate and curses, have been adopted - distorted and refurbished beyond recognition - by the political mainstream. The civil principles have been pushed into the darkness of coalition agreements, and the social agenda has become the hallmark of the right.

Meretz fell on political hard times, ostensibly not of its own doing. But its share in the failure is not inconsiderate. Of its own accord, and while making misguided decisions, the party pushed itself to the edges of the political field. Worst of all was the fact it was consciously turning into a sectoral party.

Already in the late 1970s, when Menachem Begin boasted that "Mahal has more laborers than Mapam," the left had a hard time understanding the extent to which large segments of the population felt alienated from Mapai and the kibbutzim. The fat and insensitive Mapai didn't get the message or the government.

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Mapam, which could have corrected matters, opted to join forces with civil Ratz and liberal Shinui. The man who now wants to lead the party, Haim Oron, signed off on that link-up, and his position has not been revamped: Many kibbutz members edged themselves onto the social-economic margins, but their leaders are insisting on preserving the separatist sectoralism, to their detriment and that of the party.

Meretz, which lost its great leaders, now needs another leader and another path, and as all the parties pride themselves on being peace seekers, environmentalist and socially-conscious, that path must be characterized by a clear-cut social-democratic agenda.

There is no party around today that has that agenda, and whose representatives are Jews and Arabs, veteran Israelis and new immigrants, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, people from the periphery of the country and its center, young and old. All these could be Meretz voters. Why not its representatives?

Oron will not be able to do this. He is identified with sectoralism, and is responsible for Yossi Beilin's catapulting to the party's leadership. Beilin bested Ran Cohen with the help of the sector's votes, and now, when his appeal has waned in Meretz voters' eyes, he is making way for Oron. And thus the leadership remains the same leadership, and is elected by the same sector.

It is curious that Meretz veterans are backing Oron. After all, Beilin's failure, which they fully concede, is also Oron's failure. Apparently they are relying on Oron's popular and pleasant persona, but are ignoring the alienating separatism that stands behind him. Zahav Gal-On may not "deliver the goods," but she not only is fighting almost single-handedly on matters of church and state, but also represents a different public and a different language. Ran Cohen may have been raised on a kibbutz, but he's not exactly the movement's darling.

The crux of the contrast between Oron and Cohen becomes clear through the land and housing affair.

While the kibbutz members were busy safeguarding agricultural lands for themselves in the face of the famous High Court of Justice ruling [that restored the leased lands to the state in 2001], Cohen was busy promoting the Public Housing Law, which endeavored to compensate those who weren't lucky enough to have an aggressive lobby in the Knesset and court.

Through him, Meretz then showed itself for the first time in public as a movement that is interested in connecting to another public and bringing it closer to the political agenda as well.

It is worth recalling that Beilin turned his back on the Labor Party's Amir Peretz, and thereby did not permit the growth of a large leftist economic-social bloc to take on Kadima. The social-democratic alternative was nipped in the bud.

Now, when Labor is headed by a man of the right, whose difference from Kadima's leaders is vague, Meretz, headed by Cohen, has an alternative to offer. If it decides to pick Beilin-Oron and to sharpen the sectoralism, the party will be pushed further onto the sidelines, and the public outside of the kibbutzim will seek a new address.

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