Israeli Labour dumps leader
Israel’s Labour party has dethroned its leader and replaced her with a veteran politician who is expected to crank up the pressure for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.
The party shunned Shelly Yachimovich, leader for the last two years, and chose Isaac Herzog instead, in last week’s primary election.
Yachimovich assumed the leadership just after the mass cost-of-living demonstrations of 2011, during which social protests swept the country. She based her political platforms on the atmosphere of the day, and emphasised social matters while sidelining the Labour party’s long-time signature: a peace deal with the Palestinians.
Yachimovich attracted significant criticism within her party when she fought January’s general election almost exclusively on social and economic platforms. She later expressed regret for this decision.
Many party colleagues were also angered when she refused to join the coalition, even when offered a senior ministerial position, and vowed to stay in opposition.
The new leader Herzog was among Yachimovich’s critics, and has already marked himself out as far more forthright on the peace process. “Only real steps and peace would allow us to prevail on all fronts, and I highly doubt Prime Minister Netanyahu can see that,” he said shortly after his victory.
Herzog comes from an esteemed family on Israel’s left. His father was Israel’s sixth President, Chaim Herzog, and his grandfather and namesake Isaac Herzog was the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel.
Israel’s chief negotiator for the talks with the Palestinians, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, has proposed an “ideological alliance” with Herzog’s Labour, as she considers it to have restored its pro-peace credentials. Herzog has not responded, but is believed to be open to cooperation with Livni’s Hatnuah faction – yet he has declared that he doesn’t currently plan to join the coalition.
However, he is thought more likely than Yachimovich was to step into the coalition if it needs Labour.
The right-wing Jewish Home party has already generated significant tensions in the coalition over its objections to the government’s release of Palestinian prisoners in the context of the peace process, and is expected to cause further tensions as the peace talks continue.
Yossi Shain, chairman of the political science department at Tel Aviv University speaks for many in his field when he predicts a coalition crisis that leads to Jewish Home leaving the government and Herzog agreeing to replace it. “I will not be surprised if this happens within a few months,” Shain told The AJN.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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