:::The victory of the bourgeois-militarist lobby
By: Haim Baram [ ::: Politics ::: ]
As in a boxing match, Ehud Barak beat his rival on points, not by knockout, but the final decision is yet to be made. Ami Ayalon remains a close contender with a large supportive base, mainly in the kibbutzim and large cities. It is likely that Ayalon will also receive the votes that went to Ofir Pines in the first round, including the large numbers this young contender received in Jerusalem. The big unknown is the failing incumbent, Amir Peretz. Despite our expectations, before the primaries, Peretz received a little over 22% of the vote, and maintained his lead among the mizrahi party members. If Peretz decides to join Barak's camp to get a ministerial position, he will again be betraying his social-democratic followers, and ally himself with the most neo-liberal and hawkish contender.
The Labour Party has more or less reinstated its preference for generals and admirals, and Barak's campaign of fear has been partially successful. Yet it is important to keep in mind that a large majority of the Israeli electorate, 64% (!), voted against the last Labour Prime-Minister.
Nothing has changed nor will it change, as the hopes pinned on Amir Peretz's leadership proved false. The run-off election on June 12 is the final disturbing proof that the voters have returned to rally behind a militaristic mainstream leadership. We can only take comfort in the thought that the majority of the electorate rejected Ehud Barak, the mere mention of whose name intensifies the hate between Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens. The readers should ignore the vote count in the Arab sector as it was presented on TV. All we saw were die-hard party hacks without influence among the Arab public. The Arab sector is under a dictatorship of voter-drives orchestrated by the Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. This is why they voted for a man who allowed the Security Forces to massacre them less than seven years ago.
Admittedly, small joys are joy nonetheless, and it is important that the arrogant and disagreeable Barak has been fended off, if only temporarily. Nevertheless, his success is astounding, and he may use it to take over the party in a couple of weeks. In the anxious atmosphere about security prevailing in Israel at the moment, it is also possible that Barak has played all his cards, and only Peretz can crown him as party leader. Barak made the mistake of not mentioning peace or the peace process, and focused on persuading the public that he is the ideal man to prepare the next war, and to manage it appropriately. Some of the Labour voters who participated in the primaries feel the need to maintain a perceived conflict with the "Right". Barak removed the warm cloak of ambiguity that has defined this group for years, which is why he had no support in the more dovish camp that voted for Ayalon and Pines. Like the other candidates, Barak is a nationalist but more extreme. As a politician, he is more rightwing than Olmert, both on foreign policy and on socio-economic issues. The representative of the rich-getting-richer was not a victor, but he did get 36% of the vote, and this is a contemptible result for the Labour Party and its membership.
The take-home message from the primaries - a message that does not involve the tiresome search for minute difference between the candidates (other than Barak who is the worst) - concerns the structure and ideology of the Labour Party. Within less than two years, the generals of Mapai, and their aides from the old hawkish camp, have completely destroyed the social revolution that never actually existed, but still seemed to threaten their hegemony. Even the perception of social revolution was abhorrent to them, especially when its leader, Peretz, talked "funny". The Labour Party is back to its old self. The establishment beat back the strangers "that looked like Likudniks" who had invaded the mainstream. Undoubtedly, Peretz's betrayal, preferring to destroy Lebanon over building Israeli society, played into the hands of his wealthy rivals. But the ever-shrinking Labour Party continues to pursue a path that only thinly veils elitist interests.
In recent years, The Party that many have applauded for its democratic organization, has fine-tuned mechanisms protecting it from deviations from the standard. The Oslo Accords diverged from the Zionist tradition in that the Palestinians were offered a relatively feasible proposal, thus depriving the Establishment of its main weapon, used both internally and outwardly - the myth of Arab rejectionism. Most have already forgotten how in 1993 Fatah youngsters, many of whom have since been killed in Nablus, Ramallah, and Jenin, handed olive branches to Israeli soldiers. This na?ve image frightened the Labour leadership as it undermined, for while, their main tactic - talk like a dove, act like a hawk. It should be remembered that house demolitions in the occupied territories, building fences and roadblocks, assassinations, and strengthening of the settlements, all peaked when Barak was Prime Minister. Barak and his circle also set out to dismantle the historical political alliance between the Zionist centre and the Israeli Arabs. An alliance which undermined both the territorial expansionism as well as patterns of internal oppression with significant socio-economic implications. The Arab and Jewish-Mizrahi sectors were the main victims of neo-liberalism, which the Thatcherite Shimon Peres openly adopted in 1985.
The generals and retired and active Shin Bet and Mossad people, joined forces with Barak and Ayalon to bring back the Labour party to the Ben-Gurion path. The party returned to the course of confrontation with the neighbors camouflaged as a peace proposal, and to the unrelenting oppression of the Israeli Arabs. A small reminder to those who prefer to forget (people like Eli Amir, Yuli Tamir, and Yariv Oppenheimer the CEO of Peace Now, among others): most of the atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinians in general, and the Israel Arabs in particular, took place under the leadership of the Labour Party. The generals who signed ads in support of Barak or Ami Ayalon feared that Yossi Beilin had taken Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres too far towards a new policy. This targeted obstruction aimed at destroying the legacy of Oslo, and it succeeded.
The other deviation from the standard, while just a mirage, was hurriedly stifled by army veterans and the forces of darkness. Peretz spoke of social agendas but hastened to take on the Defense Ministry. This bitter fact makes it impossible to support him. Sadly, his talk of social change and reducing socio-economic disparities became fashionable, recruiting superficial but sincere do-gooders such as Sheli Yehimovitch, and to some extent Avishai Braverman. The counter enlistment of the militaristic veterans and their collaborators was rapid and effective. Many defected to Kadima, led by the ultimate representative of this phenomenon, Shimon Peres, but others remained and made Peretz's life miserable. The opposition to Peretz was not based on his partnership in the aggressive initiative that resulted in the Second Lebanon War - rather it was due to ethnic prejudice and the fear that his failure as Minister of Defense would bring back the Social Agenda. The militarists who now control the Party are wealthy neo-liberals, who have no interest - personal or social – in changing the existing economic policy on which they thrive. The rhinoceroses, who declared their support for Barak in a large ad on the front page of Ha'aretz, unequivocally illustrate this rightwing trend.
The social-democratic minority had no real chance. Ofir Pines deserves to be supported for his brave stance against joining the Olmert-Lieberman government, but most of the party wanted to maintain the partnership with the nationalist center, represented by Kadima. A few of the remaining social democrats, like Lova Eliav, supported Pines and should be congratulated for not joining Barak or Ayalon. Others supported Peretz from lack of choice. For good reason Peretz announced that he would leave the Ministry of Defense after the primaries. The Social Agenda is his remaining card, albeit worn and phony.
Social processes have determined the fate of the Labour Party for years to come. The Party has declined from its historical status as the leading party to a minor member in a right-nationalist coalition. The only hope is that Barak will be defeated in the next couple of weeks so that in the next elections our choice will not be between Netanyahu A and Netanyahu B.
* Translated from Hebrew by Ilana Hairston.
