Eyeing a new calculus
Respected as an inventive operator, the opposition Labor Party leader is confident about victory in the March 17 polls in Israel, pledging a reset of Tel Aviv’s unsettled relations with the world
H e has been described as “the most boring man in Israeli politics”. But come March 17, Isaac Herzog, leader of the opposition Labor Party, has much support in key sections of an Israel that does seem ripe for change.
Battling Benjamin Netanyahu’s accusations that he is soft on national security, the Israeli Prime Minister’s main election rival said on Tuesday he would boost efforts to focus voters on his own military and strategic credentials.
Herzog, who heads the Centre-Left Zionist Union coalition with former cabinet minister Tzipi Livni, is a former major in an elite military intelligence unit. However, despite his claims to have the support of Arabs in Israel, there is little doubt that Herzog’s worldview is that of an ardent Zionist — just as the name of his coalition suggests. He told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine that “the extreme Right wing has conquered Zionism, and we reject that out of hand. Zionism belongs to all Israeli citizens, not just to the extremists”.
A boyish 54, Herzog is cut from the cloth of the elites. His grandfather was a chief rabbi of Israel and his father was a general, a United Nations ambassador and a president. An uncle — Abba Eban — was a legendary foreign minister. He has served in cabinets, at times in uneasy coalition with Netanyahu, as minister of tourism and as minister of welfare. But Herzog, has struggled to seize momentum as the alternative to Netanyahu.
He nonetheless is respected as an inventive operator with an easy-to-miss killer instinct. In a briefing with the foreign press on Tuesday, he vehemently predicted victory in the March 17 election, pledging to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, freeze construction in most West Bank colonies and fix Israel’s unsettled relations with the world. “I intend to win, and I will win, and I will be the next prime minister of Israel and I will replace Benjamin Netanyahu,” he said.
After a cumulative nine years of Netanyahu as the premier since 1996, polls suggest most Israelis would prefer him gone — but also show Netanyahu leading on personal plausibility. Herzog will probably not be given another shot. This is the sixth national election since the last one the Labor Party won, in 1999; Herzog is the seventh party leader during that timespan.
He has taken to speaking loudly and gesticulating, and in one campaign ad he went so far as to dub his own voice with that of a booming announcer, mocking the emphasis on the question of his nasal tones.
A strong candidate would have decent odds: There is deep malaise about the state of the economy, where despite a rich-world gross domestic product many feel hard-put to get by, and housing has soared beyond the reach of most young people. He was also a major in the army — but in a top intelligence unit known not for daring-do in battle but for spawning much of Israel’s high-tech industry. In contrast, the only two Labor Party leaders to score clear-cut election victories since the early 1970s were Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak, both former military chiefs.
Insufficiently interested
But with an array of squabbling others running as well, the election results could be messy. There is a united Israeli Arab party that could come in third and may support Herzog but not enter his coalition; four religious parties of different degrees of opposition to Herzog; and two Centrist parties that ally with neither left nor right, want peace but consider the Palestinians to be insufficiently interested, and emphasize the economy and social issues instead.
But Herzog’s mild demeanour is widely seen as an impediment towards persuading Right-wingers who may have soured on Netanyahu, an ex-commando, over issues such as the high cost of food and housing that they can safely shift their support to him.
Herzog said he needed “to reach soft Likud members”, naming Netanyahu’s Right-wing party, in order to win the election. He said he had served seven years in Israel’s security cabinet in previous governments.
He has also pledged to renew deadlocked talks with the Palestinians and ease strains with Europe, where opposition to Israeli colony-building in occupied territory has been strong.
● He has taken to speaking loudly and gesticulating, and in one campaign ad he went so far as to dub his own voice with that of a booming announcer, mocking the emphasis on his nasal tones.