Israel’s battered left set to capture around 25 seats

WHEN Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to undermine his strongest election challenger, he pins a label on him that many Israelis see as an insult: “Leftist”.

Israel was founded by the left, which dominated politics in the early years of the state. In 1992 it took 61 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, or parliament.

Nearly 30 years on, the left is forecast to take only around 25 seats in an election on Tuesday.

The left has been reeling after a series of setbacks – the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, the failure of his 1993 and 1995 Oslo accords to deliver peace with the Palestinians, many rounds of failed negotiations and years of bloodshed that have made both sides bitter and mistrustful.

Now, only 12% of Jewish Israelis identify themselves as left-wing, according to the Israel Democracy

Institute.

It was around double that a decadeand-a-half ago.

Some 56% now describe themselves as right-wing, up from 40% over the same period, and the number who say they are centrists is little changed at 26.5%.

With Netanyahu in power for the past decade and months away from becoming Israel’s longest-serving leader if he is re-elected, the right is on the ascendance.

The only candidate with a chance of beating Netanyahu is not a leftist. Benny Gantz, a former general and political novice, belongs to a new party that is running on a centrist platform.

Seeking to win over right-leaning voters, Gantz, 59, has highlighted his military credentials and is a pragmatist.

Gantz was head of the Israeli military during the 2014 Gaza war between Israel and the militant Islamist group Hamas in which 2 100 Palestinians were killed, against an Israeli death toll of 67 soldiers and six civilians.

Careful not to alienate centrist voters, Gantz also chooses his words carefully on the issue that more than any other divides Israel’s left and right – a “two-state solution” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Gantz nods to the left by saying Israel should pursue peace and end its dominion over the Palestinians but stops short of endorsing Palestinian statehood.

Most polls show Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party leading Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud in a straight race. But they also show a Netanyahu-led alliance of all the right-wing parties is more likely to secure a majority.

Netanyahu has cast Gantz as a weak leftist who will endanger Israel’s security by giving territorial concessions to the Palestinians, which is anathema to the right.

“The word ‘left’ is a tool to delegitimise everyone or anyone who’s against Netanyahu,” said Labour lawmaker Merav Michaeli. “‘Left’ has become like a curse, so it’s not surprising that so many people are trying to avoid it.”

“If there is really deep damage our prime minister has done to society, it’s making the left-wingers traitors,” said Labour supporter Liat Arbel. “We are as (much a) part of Israel as right-wingers.”

In the build-up to the election, Netanyahu struck an alliance with anti-Arab and far-right politicians, some of whom seek to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Foremost among Netanyahu’s critics for veering further right is the last left-winger to beat him in an election, Ehud Barak. | Reuters