Israeli leftist parties enter elections with weak hand
The way things look now, joining the coalition didn’t do any good for Meretz and the Labor parties, who have so far failed to enlarge their electoral support.
The decision to call an early election caught the Israeli left in one of the most difficult situations it has ever faced. The historic sociopolitical movement, for decades the largest one in the country, found that it had lost most of its supporters.
After many years in which the left took no part in government, the decision to join the coalition in May 2021 took a steep toll on Meretz and Labor. Both were forced to make major ideological concessions because the other parties that formed the coalition identified with the ideological right. Furthermore, they were sitting in a coalition in which the office of prime minister was held, at least temporarily, by the leader of one of those parties, Naftali Bennett of Yamina.
The concessions that Meretz and Labor made centered mainly around the peace process. For years, both parties argued that Israel was gambling on its future because negotiations with the Palestinians were deadlocked, and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not believe in a two-state solution. Then, when the opportunity to remove Netanyahu appeared, the two parties said that they were temporarily willing to put aside their commitment to a two-state solution and their call for an end to the occupation if that would lead to Netanyahu’s removal from power.
Meretz faced more than a few embarrassing situations in the year that they were part of the coalition. Mostly, key members of the government, led by Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked, opposed the evacuation of outposts in the West Bank and opposed negotiations with the Palestinian leadership. Meretz and Labor were willing to look aside and put their ideology on hold, but now that is taking a toll on the parties.
