TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Last week, Israel’s Labor Party looked on the verge of extinction, with polls suggesting it would not win enough votes in the upcoming election to enter parliament. But after the election of progressive lawmaker Merav Michaeli as its new leader, the party is showing signs of life.
Labor, home to the country’s founding members and for decades its ruling party, has begun to climb in opinion polls, and Michaeli is determined to make it a major force in Israeli politics again.
Michaeli, a leading feminist, promotes a message that has rarely been heard in Israeli politics in recent years. She seeks social justice, equality for all Israelis and peace with the Palestinians. Yet she will also not rule out sitting in a coalition with right-wing parties, which is likely to hamper her agenda if it achieves the common goal of ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“You may not ideologically agree with me, but it’s clear I’m here and I’m fighting for equality and peace,” Michaeli told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I believe that Labor is not dead, it is essential for the future of Israel.”
Her election seems to have given Labor a shock of momentum. But because many traditional voters have left the party, she has her job cut out before the March election. Israel’s center-left camp has been broken and right-wing parties, led by Netanyahu’s Likud, remain dominant.
Opinion polls in recent days have predicted that Labor under Michaeli will win five seats in the Israeli Knesset with 120 seats. It could jump in the coming days if smaller parties with little chance of entering parliament, as expected, withdraw from the race before the Thursday deadline. Although the projections are far below Labor’s glory days, Michaeli could make a monarchy in a coalition of medium-sized parties opposed to Netanyahu.
Labor led Israel to independence in 1948 and led the country in its first three decades and the social democratic values that are most evident today are embedded in its universal health care, especially in the midst of the pandemic. Although it led Israel during the Middle East War of 1967 and built the first settlements in the occupied West Bank, Labor later signed the important Oslo peace agreements with the Palestinians and today prefers a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Yet over the past two decades, it has struggled to remain relevant as peace talks with the Palestinians stalled, other options emerged in the center-left, and many of the electorate apparently adopted Netanyahu’s hard ideology.
Michaeli took over Labor after a difficult year when he entered the historic parliament. The party was torn apart after its former leader joined Netanyahu’s government despite promises not to oust lifelong voters. Michaeli has chosen to remain in the opposition and says she will never sit in a coalition under Netanyahu for a number of reasons, including his three corruption allegations.
She believes her decision to stay out of government, along with her message of social justice, will bring voters back.
“The fact that I succeeded in abolishing Labor is still early, but I think people believe more that it is possible,” she said.
Michaeli, 54, has long been a recognizable figure in Israel, working as a journalist and women’s rights activist for many years before entering politics in 2013 as a Labor legislator. She is widely known for her alternative views. She avoids marriage, even though she’s in a long-term relationship with a popular TV host late at night, and says she has never wanted children in a society that stems from the biblical commandment. She is known for her distinctive black appearance, which she says is meant to belittle her body and sexuality.
When she withdrew from the opposition, she promised: “We will not let the Labor Party die.” Now at the helm, she will be tested to see if she can deliver on the promise and stabilize a party that has had six leaders since Netanyahu’s leadership in 2009.
Yossi Beilin, a former Labor minister for many years whose son Michaeli challenged in the leadership contest, welcomed her election.
“The praise was premature,” he said. “Merav is intelligent and ideological and she proved herself in the Knesset and was not tempted to join the last government,” he said.
Although Michaeli has never served as cabinet minister, he has been an active legislator and a leading progressive voice in the Knesset, supporting women’s rights, LGBT affairs and workers’ rights, in addition to peace with the Palestinians.
Her first step as leader was to withdraw the party from the current caretaker government, which asked the two Labor ministers to leave the party. She promised equal representation of women on the party list. And she intends to repel the traditional Labor base of Labor, which has largely fled to other less-established parties.
Michaeli attributed the decline of the center-left to years of ‘incitement and delegitimization’ by Netanyahu and the right. But she said some mistakes were self-inflicted, such as that the party had repeatedly joined right-wing governments whose values were at odds with its own.
“They have empowered the right-wing governments and then it is clear that the party is losing its credibility and its ability to be an alternative and that it needs to be rebuilt,” she said.
Tal Schneider, political correspondent for the Times of Israel, said Michaeli showed the political skill needed to push the party in a new direction. But she said Michaeli’s victory did not change the disorder in Israel’s center – left camp.
“The problem is deeper,” she said. “But there is no doubt that she saved the party from extinction.”