Herzog settlements visit sparks row in Labour
A DISPUTE within the Labour Party over a visit by party MKs to West Bank settlements has injected some life into a rather tired leadership contest. Seven parliamentary members of Zionist Camp, of which Labour is the main component, joined the tour of settlements.
Zionist Camp leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni both went on the tour, which included the town of Ma’ale Adumim east of Jerusalem and the Gush Etzyon bloc to the capital’s south, explaining that the party had voters there and that these settlements are part of the blocks close to the Green Line which they believe will remain within Israel in a future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Mr Herzog reminded journalists and activists in Ma’ale Adumim that the “town was built as a result of a decision by Yitzhak Rabin’s first government. A month before his assassination, Rabin made a commitment in the Knesset that in any diplomatic agreement, Ma’ale Adumim would be under Israeli sovereignty”.
But Mr Herzog was the only one of nine candidates running in the leadership
Policy shift: Herzog primaries taking place on July 4 to go on the visit. The other MKs in the running, former party leader and Defence Minister Amir Peretz, venture capital millionaire Erel Margalit and Omer Barlev, all stayed away. As did the other candidates not currently in the Knesset, who include former general and deputy Mossad chief Amiram Levin and former social affairs minister Avi Gabai.
The primaries have so far failed to spark much interest in the Israeli media. The Zionist Camp is the secondlargest party in the Knesset but polls have it winning a single-digit number of MKs if elections were to take place now.
Voters, tired with the lack of clear policies or leadership, are wandering over to Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. Labour has replaced its leader nine times over the last two decades, and none have succeeded in reversing the party’s decline. By comparison, the ruling Likud has had only five leaders in Israel’s entire existence. Mr Herzog’s leadership was damaged last year after he agreed to enter Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, only to be replaced at the last moment by Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu.