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Israel's Left Struggles for Traction in Bid to Topple Netanyahu
[WSJ, click past the sign-in] Israel's left is attempting to limp out of the political graveyard in a contest to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The left was once the stable for the country's leaders, and the Labor Party and its predecessor, Maipai, provided seven of 12 prime ministers since Israel's founding. But no leftist politician has led Israel for nearly two decades. In the last election, in April, Labor saw its worst result, winning only six seats. Ehud Barak, Labor's last prime minister, has returned to politics as a leader of a new party in an alliance that wants to lead the left's attempt at resurrection. But the Democratic Union alliance, led by Mr. Barak and the head of the Meretz party, will enter the Sept. 17 election separately from Labor, which declined to join them. Labor instead joined forces with a party on the center-right to focus more on socioeconomic issues Mr. Barak, a former head of Israel's military, wants to unify leaders on the left, strengthen the wing's security credentials and topple Mr. Netanyahu, who was his protégé when Mr. Barak commanded the special forces. Mr. Barak, 77 years old, is regarded by some political observers as the kind of feisty campaigner the left has lacked. Prime minister from 1999-2001, he is the only politician to have beaten Mr. Netanyahu in an election. The two men have also combined forces at opportune times. Mr. Barak was Mr. Netanyahu's defense minister from 2009-2013, and joined the prime minister in arguing for a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. After his retirement from politics in 2013, the former general became one of Mr. Netanyahu's fiercest critics, attacking him for his political alliances with far-right parties and alleged corruption. Mr. Netanyahu has jabbed back at his former mentor, most recently over business and personal ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier facing sex trafficking charges. Both politicians deny any wrongdoing. The personal rivalry will come to a head when Israelis vote in September in elections that were called after Mr. Netanyahu failed to form a 61-seat governing coalition. Mr. Barak's alliance with Meretz and social-justice advocate Stav Shaffir, who left her position as a senior Labor official to join the group, aims to ensure that smaller leftist factions get a foothold in parliament in a political system that eliminates parties that don't reach 3.25% of the vote. The alliance, dubbed the Democratic Union, aims to be a moderating, leftist force, potentially as a part of the government‐though Mr. Barak has said the group wouldn't join a government led by Mr. Netanyahu. "Nothing like it has been established in the left for a great many years," Nitzan Horowitz, head of Meretz, said last week of the new coalition. "The Israeli left has returned to being a strong, great, attractive and influential factor." Posted by: Frank G 2019-08-05 |
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