Tel Aviv: Who said that Israel left is dead? As of Tuesday night, with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Haldai announcing the launch of his Hasraelim party, there are no fewer than six parties competing for the votes of centrist and leftist Israel.
There is something for everyone. Vague Sentries may cling to Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan, or if they can’t forgive him for joining Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition eight months ago, by voting for Yant Attid of Gantz’s former partner Yar Lapid Can. The Conservatives still have Labor, the party that established a state, and those who are slightly ahead of the left can always vote for the good old-fashioned Martz. Young and restless for the heart, always in search of a new alternative, either are independents of Ofer Shella, barely a week old, or Hilderii’s newborn baby Hyisarelim. And for fundamentalists, a joint list of communists, Islamists and Arab nationalists – assuming they are included.
Twenty-five percent of Israelis voted centrist or leftist parties in the last election, and not so long ago, in March: not so bad for a political camp that has been repeatedly declared dead. Of course, most of those votes were for the Cahol Reaper, which cannot be omitted in any real sense of the word – but then, most of the Israeli “left” was always in reverse commas. And the right wing is no bigger without its ultra-conservative allies.
But with the exception of the combined list and its highly Arab constituency, very few center-left parties are yet to be separated from each other. Huldai’s speech was a case in point. He expressed displeasure over the fact that Israel was not in the habit of getting a raw deal from the Netanyahu government for so long. But aside from his own record as the undoubtedly successful mayor of Tel Aviv, he provided no new program or innovative platform to voters.
His message was similar to that of Shelah, who started his party last week. In fact, it was no more elaborate than the one Gantz had entered national politics two years earlier. And we all saw how it turned out.
Six parties are dying for the Jewish-secular-center-left vote, which is at least a third of the electorate. And none of them stand out in particular. They are all promising to bring Netanyahu down, although most of them have at some point worked with him in government. They all claim to stand for “values”, but cannot specify what they are. They warn the Wavering Centers not to vote for Gideon Sawyer, Netanyahu’s new right-winger, but none of them have experience with Sawyer’s murderous instinct or political art. Why not vote for Regards if the most important thing is to end Netanyahu’s reign?
Israel‘s center-left is not lacking for voters, it certainly will not be lacking for parties and leaders. But during his launch last night, Haldai proved once again that he has no vision, no plan nor any compelling reason to vote for him.