Yossi Beilin
Photo: Alex Kolomoisky
Yariv Oppenheimer
Zehava Gal-On
Photo: Dudi Vaaknin
Concern on Left: Gov't of settlers underway
Left camp looking on anxiously as Netanyahu's cabinet takes shape. Peace Now launches campaign under slogan – 'This isn't unity, it's extreme Right.' Former MKs also being recruited to fight. Gal-On: I will let you govern, but will voice different stance. Beilin: Can't fool world
The slogan for Peace Now's newly launched campaign, "This isn't unity, it's extreme right-wing," expresses the movement's opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu's
government and Labor's
participation in it.
"Our goal is to expose the truth to the public," said the organization's Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer to Ynet. "This is one of the most right-wing governments ever known in Israel."
Tuesday, as the new government is being sworn in, Peace Now activists will demonstrate in front of the Knesset with trucks and tractors emblazoned with posters reading "A government of settlers is under way."
Rally
Sharon Roffe-Ofir
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The campaign objective, according to Oppenheimer, is "to make it clear to the public that despite Netanyahu's effort to present the government as a center-right government that strives for peace, in actuality, it is the most extremist government ever known in Israel – a government that does not support a two-state solution and that is committed to the settler population and the Yesha Council."
Oppenheimer, a member of Labor, opposed his party's decision to join the coalition. "It was a mistake," said Oppenheimer. "The Labor Party is playing into the hands of the Right and is granting artificial legitimacy to one of the most extreme governments in the history of the state. The Labor Party is an insignificant minority in the coalition and will not have any impact on political issues."
Peace Now claims that the next government is expected to expand settlement building, block all peace process initiatives, and oppose any compromises with the Palestinians and Syrians. The movement intends to work toward exposing the assurances and promises made to coalition partners on settlement building, increasing patrols in the Palestinian territories, and upping public relations efforts against settlements and approving outposts.
'Labor isn't even a fig leaf'
Leaders of the left wing, or what is left of it after its parliamentary representation shrunk significantly, stand behind Peace Now's campaign.
"I completely identify with the campaign," said former MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz), who was left out of the Knesset in the last elections. "There is no doubt that this is an extreme-right government. (Ehud) Barak, Fouad (Binyamin Ben-Eliezer) and Shalom Simhon fit such a government. There is nothing different about their world view and that of the Likud. The public deserves this government because that is what the public voted for, but I think it is legitimate that there is a protest movement, an opposition."
"I will let them govern, however, will make every effort to oppose them and voice a different stance. I don't believe the claim that only right-wing governments can bring progress in the peace process. If the left is allowed to decide, groundbreaking progress will be made. And I don't mean left as in Kadima or Labor. Woe is our country if Kadima and Labor are called left," continued Gal-On.
Former Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin also thinks the next government is a "very right-wing" government. The most outstanding expression of this, according to Beilin, is the appointment of (Yisrael Beiteinu leader) Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister. "If the defense minister were Barak and the foreign minister were even (Dan) Meridor, then the world would see it differently," Beilin said to Ynet. "But the fact that Lieberman is foreign minister and Labor gets this, says it all."
Peace Now's campaign, in Beilin's opinion, is a bit superfluous "because it is so obvious. No one needs an explanation that this is a right-wing government. There has never been a government with Lieberman as foreign minister. The Labor Party, with such a small number of party members supporting the coalition, can't even act as a fig leaf."
"Netanyahu was prepared to pay Labor such a high price just for it to be a fig leaf, but you can't fool the world," explained Beilin.
Beilin also is holding on to a thread of hope that the government could possibly make advances towards peace. "If this government will go out of its way to be accepted by the world and will prove to everyone that it is not what it seems, then it will receive the support of the left," said Beilin.
"I found myself allowing (Ariel) Sharon to have a government. Without Meretz led by myself, Sharon would not have had a government. And if you had asked me a few months prior to that if I would support Sharon, I would have said you are crazy. Therefore, I am cautious. You can never know. On the face of things, Lieberman as foreign minister is a provocation to the whole world, but if he divides Jerusalem and brings us back to the '67 armistice lines, I will clap for him," attested Beilin.
