The political left is also rife with petty differences, as was the political center -- until now.
There were 15 parties represented in the outgoing Knesset, and even more in the previous one. The result has been a combination of government stagnation, political instability, and corruption at every level of Israeli politics. Members of Knesset become beholden to their party apparatus with no accountability to the voter whatsoever. Many Knesset candidates don't even join in the election campaigns in an active or visible manner.
Ariel Sharon's move to create and consolidate a powerful centrist party can lead to a change in all this. He has initiated moves that are likely to cause a complete makeover of the Israeli political landscape. The move to create a strong centrist party, this time with a leader who has proven that he can get things done against extremely stiff opposition, should lead to a consolidation of interests on both the political right and the political left.
But for that change to take place, it must be met by equal or better efforts on the left and right sides of the political spectrum. It is well-known that Sharon is among the most corrupt politicians in the country. It would be a real political tragedy if moves to limit or eliminate corruption would be left to him. Rather, real leaders must emerge on both right and left -- leaders free from corruption or the suspicion of corruption, who can capture the imagination of the voters and reignite their interest in the affairs of state.
On the left, Labor has finally managed to divest itself of its old guard with the election of Amir Peretz as party leader and the departure of Shimon Peres from the party. Peretz is certainly no less corrupt than any other politician, but his ascension to the leadership has ignited the imagination of many on the left, which will certainly include thousands of voters who simply stayed home in previous elections. He has attracted a number of leading personalities in Israel, who had previously stayed away from political involvement. The media is virtually keeping a scorecard of "political acquisitions" to see how Peretz and Sharon match up. So far, they are keeping pace with each other quite nicely.
On the political right, what is left of the Likud is licking its wounds. Activists are in mourning, and six people are campaigning for the leadership of a party that, according to current polls, may only garner ten seats in the Knesset. Among the six, five of them can realistically expect to receive at least 5% of the primary vote. And among those, four are centrist candidates themselves, who perpetuate the ideological rot that has consumed the party for the past 15 years. These putative leaders represent a continuation of the same tired personalities at the top of the Knesset list and among the leadership of party institutions and local branches.
That ideological rot made it possible for the party to sit by quietly as Ariel Sharon brought the party to its lowest point in history -- the expulsion of 8500 Jews from their homes this past summer and the split that threatens to consume what is left of the party.
Neither Binyamin Netanyahu, Silvan Shalom, Shaul Mofaz nor Limor Livnat proved right-wing enough to put loyalty to their ideals above their cabinet seats. None were prepared to vote against the expulsion plan when it was being conceived or planned. None was prepared to confront Ariel Sharon as the Prime Minister turned his back completely on his own party and on the platform that put him in office. And all these leadership hopefuls are part of the same corrupt political system that places loyalty to the leader ahead of accountability to the voter, or even to the ideals that supposedly put them in office.
The only person in the Likud who will be able to succeed in rebuilding the party based on its ideology is Uzi Landau. He is the only realistic leadership candidate who is not the same closet centrist Sharon used to be.
Further right, there is a move to unite the National Religious Party with the National Union, in the hopes that a strong and united right wing will emerge. But in order for it to work, that new party will need to attract new blood as the left and center are doing. The same tired leadership will not succeed in igniting enough imagination to attract leading personalities from outside the existing political circles.
For the new politics to take hold on the right as it has in the center and the left, the Likud must elect Uzi Landau as party leader, and a move must be made to unite the Likud with the nationalist parties to its right. Only then will there be any hope of the right wing consolidating as much power as the center or left.
Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
