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5763: Articles posted from September 2002-September 2003
Get the real situation in Israel every day.
Beilin: Labor's exit is just the first step
By Ira Moskowitz
Nov 1 2002
The collapse of the Likud-Labor partnership on Wednesday was the first
of three stages necessary for the Left to regain power in Israel, former
minister and Olso mentor Yossi Beilin told supporters Wednesday night in Shoham.
Beilin was addressing a local meeting of the Shahar movement, which he founded
earlier this year. The meeting began just moments after Labor MKs cast their
votes against the government's budget bill.
The second stage in the road
to effecting a change in government, Beilin said, is to replace the leader of
the Labor Party, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, with either Haim Ramon or Amram Mitzna.
With Ramon or Mitzna as Labor leader, Beilin continued, the conditions will be
ripe for the third stage in the path to power: bringing Labor and Meretz
together to run as a single bloc in the elections next year.
According
to Beilin, there is overwhelming support in both Meretz and Labor for the idea
of running as a joint ticket. The platforms of the two parties are very similar,
Beilin noted. In fact, he said, Labor has ventured to the left of Meretz on
several key issues, including Oslo and the unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon.
A united Left stands a good chance of becoming the largest Knesset bloc
in the next elections and as such would be the first faction to be invited by
President Katsav to attempt to form a new government, Beilin explained. (He
noted that Katsav could break precedent and give a smaller faction the first
chance to form a government, but that this would be an unlikely scenario.) The
nod from the president would create momentum for attracting additional parties
into a ruling coalition, Beilin added.
Beilin tried to inject a dose of
optimism at the meeting, which earlier heard local residents express dismay over
the state of affairs in Israel. He admitted that many supporters of the Left
have already given up hope of victory in next year's elections and are looking
toward 2007.
Beilin reminded the audience that the situation also looked
bleak for the Left in 1991, when Labor trailed the Likud by 20 points in opinion
polls and debate centered around whether Rabin or Peres would make a more
effective opposition leader in the next Knesset. Once stripped of the camouflage
provided by Labor ministers, the true nature of the Sharon government will
become more evident to all and support for the Right is likely to decline, as it
did in 1992, Beilin suggested.
Shahar (an acronym of the Hebrew words
for peace, education and social welfare) has no intention of becoming a
political party, but will work to unify the ranks of the Left and will be ready
with a complete program of action when the reins of government return to the
Left, Beilin declared.
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