This could lead to the idea that the two problems are really one, and can only be solved together. But this conclusion meets with resolute resistance.
The young leaders of the protest insist that the demand for reform unites all Israelis -- male and female, young and old, leftist and rightist, religious and secular, Jew and Arab, Ashkenazi and Oriental. Therein lies its power. The moment the question of national policy comes up, the movement will break apart. End of protest.
Difficult to argue with that.
True, even so, the rightists accuse the protesters of being leftists in
disguise. Very few national-religious people appear at the demonstrations, and no orthodox at all. Oriental Jews, traditional voters for the Likud, are under-represented, though not altogether absent. People speak of a movement of the "White Tribe" -- Jews of European descent.
Still, the movement has succeeded in avoiding an open split. The hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have not been called upon to identify themselves with any particular political party or creed. The leaders can rightly claim that their tactic -- if it is a tactic -- has worked up to now.
THIS CONVICTION has been reinforced by recent events in the Labor Party.
This moribund congregation, down in the polls to a mere 7% of the votes, has suddenly sprung to new life. A lively primary election for the party leadership has restored some color to its cheeks. In a surprise victory, Shelly Yacimovich has been elected party chairwoman.
Shelly (I dislike these long foreign surnames) was in the past an assertive, abrasive radio journalist with very pronounced feminist and social-democratic views. Six years ago she joined Labor and was elected to the Knesset under the wing of Amir Peretz, the then leader, who she has now soundly beaten.
In the Knesset, Shelly has distinguished herself as a diligent and relentless militant on social issues. She is a girlish-looking 51, a lone she-wolf, disliked by her colleagues, devoid of charisma, not at all the hail-fellow-well-met type. Yet the party rank and file, perhaps out of sheer desperation, preferred her to the members of the bankrupt old guard. The atmosphere in the country produced by the social protest movement certainly contributed to her success.
In all her years in the Knesset, she has not mentioned any of the national problems -- war and peace, occupation, settlements. She has concentrated exclusively on social issues. On the eve of the primary, she shocked many members of her party by publicly embracing the settlers. "The settlements are no sins or crimes," she asserted, they were put there by Labor Party governments and are a part of the national consensus.
Shelly may really believe this or she may consider it good tactics -- the fact is that she has adopted the same line as the protest movement: that social affairs should be separated from "national" affairs. Seems you can be rightist on the occupation and leftist on taxing the rich.
BUT CAN YOU?
On the morrow of the Labor primaries, something amazing happened. In a respected opinion poll, Labor rose from 8 to 22 Knesset seats, overtaking Tzipi Livni's Kadima, which sank from 28 to 18.
A revolution? Not quite. All the new Labor votes came from Kadima. But a move from Kadima to Labor, while interesting in itself", is not important. The Knesset is divided into two blocs -- the nationalist-religious and the center-left-Arab. As long as the rightist bloc has a 5% edge, there will be no change. To effect change, enough voters must jump from one side of the scales to the other.
Shelly believes that by shunning national issues and concentrating on social matters, voters can be moved to make the jump. Some say: that's all that counts. What's the use of putting forward a program of peace, if you can't change the government? Let's first come to power, by whatever means, and than see to peace.
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