TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Last week, the Israeli Labor Party appeared to be on the verge of extinction, with polls indicating it would not win enough votes in the next election to enter parliament. But after the election of progressive lawmaker Merav Michaeli as its new leader, the party is showing signs of life.
The Labor Party, home to the country’s founding leaders and its ruling party for decades, has started to rise in opinion polls, and Michaeli is determined to again become a major force in Israeli politics.
Michaeli, an incendiary feminist, promotes a message that has rarely been heard in Israeli politics in recent years. It seeks social justice, equality for all Israelis and peace with the Palestinians. However, it also does not rule out the possibility of participating in a coalition with right-wing parties, probably damaging its agenda, if that achieves the common goal of ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“You can disagree with me ideologically, but what is clear is that I am here and I fight for equality and peace,” Michaeli told the Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I believe that Labor is not dead, it is essential for Israel’s future.”
His election seems to have given a boost to Labor. But with many traditional voters leaving the party, she has a lot of work ahead of the March elections. Israel’s center-left camp is fragmented and right-wing parties, led by Netanyahu’s Likud, remain dominant.
Opinion polls in the past few days have projected that Labor under Michaeli will win five seats in the 120-seat Knesset in Israel. That could increase in the coming days if, as expected, smaller parties with little chance of reaching parliament withdraw from the race before Thursday’s deadline. While projections are far short of the Labor Party’s glory days, even a modest display could make Michaeli a creator of kings in a coalition of midsize parties that oppose Netanyahu.
The work led Israel to independence in 1948 and led the country for the first three decades, incorporating the most evident social democratic values today in its universal health care, especially in the midst of the pandemic. Although Labor led Israel during the 1967 Middle East war and built the first settlements in the occupied West Bank, Labor later signed the Oslo peace agreements with the Palestinians and today is in favor of a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Still, it has struggled to remain relevant for the past two decades, as peace with the Palestinians has been disrupted, other options on the center left have emerged and much of the electorate appears to have embraced Netanyahu’s hard-line ideology.
Michaeli took over Labor after a difficult year, when he entered parliament with historically low support. The party was divided after its former leader joined the government of Netanyahu, despite promises not to do so, alienating lifelong voters. Michaeli chose to remain in the opposition and says he will never sit in a coalition under Netanyahu for a variety of reasons, including his three charges of corruption.
She believes that her decision to stay out of the government, combined with her message of social justice, will bring voters back.
“The fact that I was able to get the Job up is still early, but I think people have more faith than is possible,” she said.
Michaeli, 54, has long been a recognized figure in Israel, working for years as a journalist and women’s rights activist before entering politics in 2013 as a labor legislator. She is widely known for her alternative views. She avoids marriage, although she has a long-standing relationship with a popular late-night TV host, and says she never wanted to have children in a society based on the biblical command to procreate. She is known for her all-black looks, which she said aims to minimize her body and sexuality.
When she withdrew to the opposition, she promised: “We will not let the Labor Party die”. Now in charge, she will be tested to see if she can deliver on that promise and stabilize a party that has had six leaders since Netanyahu came to power in 2009.
Yossi Beilin, a longtime former labor minister, whose son challenged Michaeli in the race for leadership, welcomed his election.
“The compliments were premature,” he said. “Merav is smart and ideological and she has proved her worth in the Knesset and has not been tempted to join the last government,” he said.
Although he never served as a cabinet minister, Michaeli has been an active legislator and a leading progressive voice in the Knesset, supporting women’s rights, LGBT causes and workers’ rights, as well as seeking peace with the Palestinians.
His first step as a leader was to withdraw the party from the current provisional government, prompting the two Labor ministers to leave the party. She promised equal representation for women on the party list. And it aims to attract back the traditional Labor Party electoral base, which has largely fled to other less established parties.
Michaeli attributed the center-left’s decline to years of “incitement and delegitimization” by Netanyahu and the right. But she said that some mistakes were self-inflicted, such as the party that has repeatedly joined right-wing governments whose values were at odds with its own.
“They became facilitators of right-wing governments and then it became clear that the party is losing its credibility and its ability to be an alternative and that it must be rebuilt,” she said.
Tal Schneider, a political correspondent for the Times of Israel, said Michaeli had shown the political prowess needed to push the party in a new direction. But she said that Michaeli’s victory does not change the confusion in Israel’s center-left camp.
“The problem is more profound,” she said. “But there is no doubt that she saved the party from extinction.”