‘Countries make mistakes’: Israel’s Left believes it can regain control

Meretz councillor LAURA WHARTON doesn’t expect her party will rise from the ashes, but she believes the Left and Centre will move together to reclaim Israel’s government.

When Laura Wharton was a young child in the US, the Vietnam War was raging.

“It seemed like we were doing outrageous things all the time – and we were. But the country returned to itself at some point. Countries make mistakes.”

Now Wharton, who heads Israel’s social democratic party Meretz on the Jerusalem municipality, has seen her country make what she believes is a “terrible mistake”. She describes the far-Right partners in the new coalition as composed of “messianic barbarians, convicted criminals and racists”.

But the veteran social justice advocate, who migrated to Israel as a young woman, has faith Israel will return to itself, and the Centre will combine with the Left to oust a government beholden to ultra-nationalist and Haredi coalition partners.  

Wharton points out that while the outcome of the recent election has delivered a far-Right coalition, a relatively small change could have resulted in a very different government.

“If you do the numbers, Netanyahu only got 48% of the votes because there were so many votes lost [by small parties that did not make the threshold]. My party alone lost 150,000 votes.”

Wharton is frank that she has seen Meretz dissolve on her watch. At its peak in 1992, the party, which runs on a platform of social democracy, secularism, and a two-state solution, had 12 seats in the Knesset. At the recent election it did not reach the 3.25% threshold required to gain a single seat.

“I don’t think Meretz with that name will rise from the ashes,” she says.

“But there are already meetings taking place among members of Labor Party and Meretz and other activists. I don’t know if what we form will encompass all the Left, if we will all just join the Labor Party and try to bring it back to what was, or whether we will form something new. I think most people think there needs to be something new.

Referring to those who are already gathering to discuss opposition to the Government and new Left parties, she said, “The new democratic movement has a few thousand people already but it’s going to take time to build it up, decide on a name and create structures but I do think that’s what’s going to happen.”

With the Left marginalised, much of her hope lies with the more moderate members of Likud. She hopes they will come to realise the mistake they have made in compromising with ultranationalists prepared to sacrifice democratic institutions.

“I think a lot of people in Likud are not only embarrassed by the outrageous decisions that are made but they are furious with Benjamin Netanyahu, who supposedly led the party to a victory with 32 seats and has been giving off the ministries to his coalition partners and not to his colleagues in his party.

“There’s potential for a backlash by people in the Likud who trusted this man and are watching him do a massive sell-off. We need some of these people to say, ‘you’ve crossed all the red lines.’

“Most Likud voters did not realise what kind of coalition would result. They didn’t understand it, or they didn’t believe it would be as bad as it is. But people are finding it is worse than their worst nightmares,” Wharton says.

She does not believe the Government will last a full term. Netanyahu won’t abandon his coalition partners because their support on overriding the courts is his best chance of staying out of jail, she said.

But the Left and Centre may be able to destabilise the coalition and build an alternative centrist coalition – or force the country to yet another election.

Such a dramatic turn of events may seem unlikely at the moment, but Wharton thinks there are enough Likud MKs who could walk away from Netanyahu’s government over a line-crossing demand from the far Right. She is waiting for the straw that breaks the Likud camel’s back.

“I believe that either by rebelling within the Likud or by other parties reorganising, we’ll be able to take the country back. It might take a year; it might take more than that but there’s no question that most Israelis are deeply concerned and see the direction we are going is not only bad but scary and a threat to our existence as a democratic modern nation.”

The Left is engaged in serious soul-searching and reorganising, aware that it needs to refocus on the issues that matter to Israelis.

“We keep talking about the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinians which is all true and important. But the problem is not just the rights of Palestinians, the problem is: are we a democratic country that respects international law and wants to defend itself? Or are we a messianic movement that wants to build an empire that runs from the river to the sea?

“We’ve stopped talking about security. We’ve stopped talking about social justice. We’ve stopped talking about equality and basic services. We have also done a terrible job of keeping ourselves together. There were five parties on the Left.”

Wharton said the progressive side of politics needs to argue its vision for two states on the grounds that it will give Israel the best chance of a secure border.

“I truly believe the best thing to make Israel safe is to have a border and defend it. More than half of our soldiers are dealing with the territories and not defending our border.”

She points out that Israel was at its most powerful in 1967 when it was at its smallest, and weakest in 1973, when it had the most extensive territory.

“It just shows how this obsessive emphasis on ‘we need more land, we need another hill, we have to settle and put up another outpost’, is just wrong and is not going to guarantee our safety.”

Wharton says the Left also needs to reorient towards its traditional issues such as social equality in education, healthcare, transport, and public housing.

“The Right has done well by talking about other things, but I don’t think most people are convinced that an economy with low minimum wage and almost no public housing is what they want.

“Israel has always, since its founding on every survey ever done, shown most people believe in equality and believe more should be done to narrow the social gaps and the Left has been talking about that less and less.” 

Photo: Laura Wharton in front of the Jerusalem Municipality building (Jerusalem Municipality)