Ben Eliezer has made his rallying cry the refusal of the government to implement an additional NIS 710 million cut from the budget allocated to the needs of communities in Judea and Samaria. He has accompanied this demand with the disingenuous remark that the “disadvantaged” of Israeli society should be getting the money instead of the “settlements”.
The remark is disingenuous for two reasons. First, these communities are being hit by budget cuts in line with all other sectors of society due to the general budget crunch that the current deep recession has caused. Second, Ben Eliezer is demanding that the money be transferred to seniors and students – not necessarily the economically disadvantaged.
Ever since Labor first started threatening to vote against the budget, way back in August, those with a proper view of the issue have been claiming that Ben Eliezer is simply trying to win the Labor leadership race on the backs of Judea and Samaria’s residents. The transparent vote mongering represented by the latest decision makes this plain.
Seniors and students make up a good portion of Labor’s voters, particularly those most likely to support Ben Eliezer in the leadership contest. By pandering to them, while at the same time kicking the Labor party’s favorite target, Ben Eliezer hopes to at least solidify his position, if not gain back some of his lost support.
To be certain, there are many sectors of the Israeli population that are in need of financial assistance. Among them there are sure to be quite a few seniors and students. But Labor continues to refuse to accept the true mantle of champion of the downtrodden. Nowhere in their demands does there appear any mention of development towns, single parents, or the unemployed. Nowhere is any thought given to withholding money from the Palestinians and transferring that to the people most harshly affected by the economic downturn that has resulted in part from their violent offensive against Oslo.
A government of national unity means more than just the unholy alliance of political foes in charting a course for the nation. It means that the policies put forth by such a government should be for the good of the whole nation, and not just for sectorial interests. It is for that reason that sectorial interest parties such as Shinui and the Arab parties were never a part of this government. Their entire political existence depends on what they stand against.
The Arabs stand against the realization of the Zionist dream in Israel. Their ten seats are held by six different factions as politically diverse as possible. They generally vote as a bloc due to their one unifying factor – their opposition to a Jewish Israel.
Shinui has six members in the Knesset, including one from a now defunct right-wing party, one refugee from the extreme leftist Meretz party, one Russian immigrant, and one hard centrist. Their only unifying issue is their hatred for anything remotely resembling the Jewish religion.
Labor now appears set to join this group of narrow sectorial parties. They are led by a defense minister who has prolonged the military crisis by preventing the military from finishing the job they are meant to do. Now, with continued Arab terrorism at the top of his agenda and an imminent attack on Iraq portending a greater involvement for the IDF, he is resigning from the government rather than serving the needs of the nation. There are also a foreign minister who cannot bring himself to plead Israel’s case to the world and finds himself more often than not agreeing with our adversaries, and two leadership hopefuls who openly pine for a return to the national suicide that was the Oslo Accords.
Internal party politics has never been totally subjugated by these people to the true interests of the nation. Even during Ehud Barak’s final days as prime minister, he preferred negotiating under fire in an effort to solidify his own position, regardless of the carnage his negotiating partners were inflicting on his people.
Now, though, internal party politics has become more important to these people than the militarily and economically secure future of the nation. They are, to a man, prepared to sacrifice the needs of the national good on the altar of special interest pandering. For this reason, the Labor party will lose support in next year’s election, regardless who its leader is and regardless who its opponent is.
Ariel Sharon has done a masterful job of keeping the Labor party under his finger for the past two years. During that time, he has prevented them from gaining any support following Barak’s loss, and has even caused them to lose more support. From within the government, Labor has been unable to formulate their own policies, even as they hamstring Sharon from carrying out his. The result will be an electoral devastation for Labor, with the fewest seats in party history.
But now, Sharon can let go. Labor has placed itself as a narrow-interest party at a time when the people of the nation are demanding national answers. Labor will continue to disintegrate even without Sharon’s help now. In fact, the longer Labor remains in the government, the more likely it is they will pick up a few extra seats in the next election.
The time has come for the Labor party to leave this government of national unity. The nation’s thirst for unity is now better served without Labor in the government. Sharon’s budget will pass even without them, at which time he can call an early election that will not allow Labor enough time to regroup. A strong right-wing government will then be allowed to finish this war and put the country back on the road to economic prosperity without having to worry about Labor’s childish bickering.
Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
