TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Last week, the Israeli Labor Party appeared to be on the brink of extinction, and polls showed it would not win enough votes in the upcoming election to get into parliament. But after the election of progressive lawmaker Merav Michaeli as new leader, the party is showing signs of life.
Labor, home to the country’s founding leaders and the ruling party for decades, is starting to rise in opinion polls, and Michaeli is determined to make it another major force in Israeli politics.
A firebrand feminist, Michaeli is promoting a message rarely heard in Israeli politics in recent years. She strives for social justice, equality for all Israelis and peace with the Palestinians. But neither will she rule out being in a coalition with right-wing parties, which is likely hampering her agenda, if it fulfills the shared goal of ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“You can’t agree with me ideologically, but what’s clear is that I’m here fighting for equality and peace,” Michaeli told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I believe Labor is not dead, it is essential to Israel’s future.”
Her election seems to have boosted Labor. But since many traditional voters have left the party, she has her job for the March election. Israel’s center-left camp is divided and right-wing parties, led by Netanyahu’s Likud, remain dominant.
Polls in recent days have predicted that Labor under Michaeli will win five seats in the Knesset with 120 seats in Israel. That could jump in the coming days if, as expected, smaller parties with little chance of making it into parliament withdraw from the race before a Thursday deadline. While the projections are well below Labor’s glory days, even a modest display of Michaeli could make Michaeli a king in a coalition of medium-sized parties opposed to Netanyahu.
Labor led Israel to independence in 1948 and led the country for the first three decades, enshrining the social democratic values most evident in its universal health care today, especially during the pandemic. Although it led Israel during the 1967 war in the Middle East and built the first settlements in the occupied West Bank, Labor later signed Oslo’s historic peace accords with the Palestinians and today advocates a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Still, it has struggled to stay relevant for the past two decades as peacemaking with the Palestinians has stalled, other options in the center left have emerged, and much of the electorate appears to have embraced Netanyahu’s harsh ideology.
Michaeli took over Labor after a difficult year when it entered parliament with historically low support. The party was torn apart after its former leader joined Netanyahu’s government despite pledges not to do so, driving voters for life. Michaeli chose to remain in the opposition, saying she will never be in a coalition under Netanyahu for a number of reasons, including his three charges of corruption.
She believes her decision to stay out of government, coupled with her message of social justice, will bring back voters.
“The fact that I’ve managed to disband Labor is still early days, but I think people are more confident that it is possible,” she said.
Long a recognizable figure in Israel, Michaeli, 54, worked for years as a journalist and women’s rights activist before entering politics as a Labor legislator in 2013. She is widely known for her alternative views. She shuns marriage, although she is in a long-term relationship with a popular late-night TV host, and says she never wanted children to procreate in a society born of biblical commandment. She is known for her signature all-black looks, which she said are meant to downplay her body and sexuality.
When she withdrew to the opposition, she promised, “We will not let the Labor Party die.” Now at the helm, she will be tested to see if she can deliver on that promise and stabilize a party that has had six leaders since Netanyahu came to power in 2009.
Yossi Beilin, a former former labor minister whose son challenged Michaeli in the leadership race, welcomed her election.
“The eulogy was premature,” he said. “Merav is intelligent and ideological and she proved herself in the Knesset and was not tempted to join the latest government,” he said.
Although never serving as a cabinet minister, Michaeli has been an active legislator and a leading progressive voice in the Knesset, supporting women’s rights, LGBT affairs and workers’ rights, in addition to seeking peace with the Palestinians.
Her first step as leader was to withdraw the party from the current transitional government, prompting the two labor ministers to leave the party. She has promised equal representation of women on the party list. And she plans to reclaim Labor’s traditional voter base, which has largely fled to other less established parties.
Michaeli attributed the decline of the center left to years of “sedition and de-legitimation” by Netanyahu and the right. But she said some mistakes were self-inflicted, such as the party that repeatedly joined right-wing governments whose values conflicted with hers.
“They became facilitators of right-wing governments and then it is clear that the party is losing its credibility and its ability to be an alternative, and it needs to be rebuilt,” she said.
Tal Schneider, political correspondent for the Times of Israel, said Michaeli has shown the political prowess necessary to push the party in a new direction. But she said Michaeli’s victory does not change the disorder in Israel’s center-left camp.
“The problem is deeper,” she said. “But there is no doubt that she saved the party from extinction.”