Last week, Israel’s Labor party appeared headed for extinction, with polls indicating it wouldn't win enough votes in upcoming elections to enter parliament. But following the election of progressive lawmaker Merav Michaeli as its new leader, the party is showing signs of life.
Labor, home of the country's founding leaders and for decades its ruling party, has begun to climb in opinion polls, and Michaeli is determined to once again make it a major force in Israeli politics.
Michaeli, a firebrand 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 also won't rule out sitting in a coalition with right-wing parties, likely hindering her agenda, if that realizes the shared goal of ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Associated Press reported.
“You can disagree with me ideologically but what is clear is that I am here and I fight for equality and peace,” Michaeli told AP in a telephone interview.
“I believe that Labor is not dead, it is essential for Israel’s future.”
Her election appears to have given Labor a jolt of momentum. But with many traditional voters having left the party, she has her work cut out for her ahead of March elections. Israel's center-left camp is fractured and right-wing parties, led by Netanyahu's Likud, remain dominant.
Opinion polls in recent days have projected that Labor under Michaeli will win five seats in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset. That could jump in the coming days if, as expected, smaller parties with little chance of making it into parliament withdraw from the race ahead of a Thursday deadline. Although the projections are far below Labor's glory days, even a modest showing could make Michaeli a kingmaker in a coalition of midsize parties opposed to Netanyahu.
Labor guided Israel to independence in 1948 and led the country for its first three decades, embedding social democratic values most evident today in its universal health care, especially amid the pandemic.
Although it led Israel during the 1967 Mideast war and built the first settlements in the occupied West Bank, Labor later signed the landmark Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians and today favors a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Yet it has struggled to remain relevant over the past two decades as peacemaking with the Palestinians ground to a halt, other options in the center-left emerged and much of the electorate appears to have embraced Netanyahu’s hard-line ideology.
Michaeli took over Labor after a trying year when it entered parliament with historically low support. The party was torn apart after its former leader joined Netanyahu's government despite pledges not to, driving away lifelong voters. Michaeli chose to remain in the opposition and says she will never sit in a coalition under Netanyahu for a slew of reasons, among them his three corruption indictments.
She believes her decision to stay out of the government, combined with her message of social justice, will bring voters back.
“The fact that I have managed to lift up Labor, it’s still early, but I think people have more faith that it’s possible,” she said.
Michaeli, 54, has long been a recognizable figure in Israel, working for years as a journalist and women's rights activist before entering politics in 2013 as a Labor lawmaker.
