Blind faith in Sharon

New party may be called 'Forward,' but it is really trying to drag politics backwards

Nahum Barnea|Published: 11.30.05 , 09:27

The good news is that, at least on opening day of the 17th Knesset's, there will be some new faces, excited, opinionated and refreshing.

Up to now, successful Israelis such as Avishai Braverman, Uriel Reichman and Shelly Yechimovitz have shied away from party politics, but have now taken the plunge and are full of personal and public ambition.

In recent years Israeli politics has become a rotten egg, with flies buzzing all around. The new candidates will improve things, and inspire other newcomers to join their ranks.

It's as refreshing as rain in a heat wave, as a Ronaldino goal at Camp Nuo stadium, as tsunami on the Yarkon River.

Few 'buts' to consider

But here there are a few "buts" to consider. Let's start with the party that fancies itself as the ruling party for the foreseeable future, Sharon's party.

In front of our very eyes, it is squandering the opportunity to actually get some sort of message across. The new party's slogan is "Israel wants to move forward", with a red stripe over the word "forward."

Israel may want to move forward, but the Kadima Party is looking to move backwards. The original idea was to create a Likud-lite party, drawing the main thrust of its voters from the center and the right.

Until the pollsters came and pushed Sharon to the left. They believe that the people who ditched the Likud in favor of Sharon will stay with him at least until the elections. Ironically, Sharon's list could lose votes at the last minute to the Labor Party.

Adopting Peres

Shimon Peres, up until a few days ago an object for scorn in Sharon's circles, has suddenly become an asset. He's the teenager who will stem the flow of voters running to Amir Peretz.

He won't be on the Knesset list – Sharon's not THAT confused – but he'll be around, just in case the old farts from Givatayim suddenly yearn for home in the old party.

And so it happened that the picture in the background in Sharon, but the lipstick on the slogan comes from Dalia Itzik. Instead of Likud-lite, instead of a strong centrist party, we have a right-left party, in which the only common denominator, apart from personal ambition, is the recognition of Ariel Sharon's leadership.

Blind faith

Forward? How? To where? Voters are unlikely to hear any real answers to these questions. In practice, Sharon is essentially asking for blind faith. He, Sharon, will do whatever he feels like.

It is possible to vote for such a party, but it is impossible to be excited by it. The opposite must be said about Amir Peretz's Labor Party: it's easy to be excited about it, but very hard to vote for it.

Peretz took a dead party and breathed a little life into it. This medical miracle drew in the entire political establishment. Suddenly social problems were at the head of the national agenda and forced elections, in order to get it a respectable place in our political history.

His fresh acquisition, at least as of Tuesday, was Shelly Yechimovitz, who in contrast to other journalists-turned-politicians, has no inkling of opportunism. Her political and social worldview is well known, and jives completely with that of Amir Peretz.

And her decision carries far-reaching personal and financial consequences: If she fails, it will be hard for her to return to her former occupation.

Ethical questions

Her move also raises complicated ethical questions. A long cooling-off period wouldn't have hurt her or the tiny bit of respect that remains associated with the word "journalist."

It's easy to imagine how she would have crucified someone else for pulling such a stunt, for moving from interviewing Amir Peretz to hugging him on the public stage. But the main people interested in journalism are journalists.

Politically, the Yechimovitz affect has little to do with "what does it mean?" She is charismatic. She's interesting. She's loved by many and hated by many. Thanks to the Eretz Nehederet program, she is part of our national folklore.

It will be interesting to see just how the Yechimovitz affect works on other parties. I'm interested, for instance, in whether she is able to get Peretz into the living rooms of young people in Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya, and if she can make voting for Labor trendy, as it once was to vote Shinui.

I would also check out the influence she has on Meretz voters. Yechimovitz could well draw yuppie left-wing voters from Meretz to Peretz. If this becomes a wave, Meretz could fall off the political map completely.

That which Yossi Beilin won't say, Yechimovitz will. And she'll say it stronger, better, and with more of a media flair than Beilin.