This is a bad government. Bad for peace, bad for the economy, bad for the Israeli Jews, bad for the Israeli Arabs. As I write this, the Palestine/Israel negotiations are about to hit bottom. The government insisted on face to face negotiations, but they refuse to tell the Palestinians what they are negotiating about - what land they will get. This is not malice. The government is simply so divided and incompetent that they have not yet agreed on a map! 211,000 unemployed are not ‘good for the Jews’ as was said of Bibi. By the end of the year, experts are predicting 240,000. The worse recession since 1966. Israeli Arabs have lost any gains they made during the tenure of the Labor administration toward correcting the unfair treatment they are getting.

I wish I could say that this miserable situation will lead to a Labor victory, but I can’t. The Labor party has concentrated for two years on bringing down this government and holding elections. However, they have done virtually nothing to ensure victory in those elections. Like a dog who chases trucks, they have not given any thought to what might happen afterwards.

Consider what Labor has done, and what they have not done. There was one worthy effort at legislation - drafting of Yeshiva students. Not an anti-religious measure, but one that would have put at least a small coin into the balance on the side of justice. It would have saved the economy millions in subsidies. It lost votes for Ehud Barak and for Labor, and it did not pass. At least it was a noble effort.

Other than that one bill, what has Labor done? Did Labor offer an emergency plan to help the unemployed? Did they fight for the rights of Arab citizens? Did Ehud Barak make a strong statement against house demolitions? land confiscation? If they did any of these things, did anybody hear about it?

There are hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants who face problems due to arbitrary laws that decide they are not Jewish. People who serve and die in the army are buried in separate cemeteries, and their families are treated as pariahs. Families cannot get acclimated properly. All because of rabbinical decisions about who is, and who is not, a Member of the Chosen people. Labor could have won many hearts and minds for their cause by helping these people. But they did nothing. Whatever was done was done by the Meretz party and independent action groups.

PNA non-compliance with Oslo is a national concern and a legitimate issue. When asked if Palestinians were complying with Oslo, he said “I don’t know.” If he really doesn’t know, he ought to find out. It would have cost him nothing to say the truth, which everyone knows. There is no point in obscuring the issue. He could also have added that Israel is doing its best to make a mockery of the agreements as well.

Nobody heard Labor positions on these vital issues. What people heard was Barak saying he would have been a terrorist, and Ori Orr making racist remarks that were political suicide. Barak has invested a great deal, I am told, in trying to win the mostly Sephardic population of settlement towns for the cause of labor. On this point, he has been heard. He apologized to the Sephardic community for past sins of labor, and he has been visiting Netivot and other towns. He has certainly talked a great deal about the issue. If he is such an advocate of the needs of the population of development towns he, and the Labor movement, could have started to do something concrete to help them instead of just talking. The Shas party offers subsidized day care and subsidized groceries and other programs designed to win people over to their cause. Why cannot the supposedly socially aware Labor movement do the same thing?

In another ‘brilliant move’ Barak went to settlements near the green line and said that these settlements would remain under Israeli rule forever. He said nothing new. It is the known position of the Labor party. He alienated Arab voters. They probably will not vote for Netanyahu, but they are more likely to just stay home. What did he gain? He said ‘Just wait and see how many votes I get in Beth-El.’

How many, Ehud? three?

Everything Barak has done has tended to blur the differences between himself and Netanyahu. The differences between Labor and Likud are quite real of course. However, you wouldn’t know it unless you examined their platforms and did some extensive research. The Likud is perfectly happy with Labor’s strategy because it will cause voter apathy. Voter apathy works in favor of the incumbent party.

Barak and Ori Orr were not the only ones contributing to the Likud campaign. People also heard various Labor party members ensuring that everyone knew not only that Orr had made those remarks, but that Orr is a friend of Barak’s. MK Hagai Merom was particularly eager to explain this point at length in an interview on Israeli radio. Merom is quite convincing. Surely, he convinced many people not to vote for Ehud Barak. He was not alone.

Previously, Merom and his friends made sure people know that Barak is a dictator, that he attempts to impose his strong opinions, and also that he is indecisive and too democratic.

Barak was criticized for hesitating a few hours before taking action against Ori Orr, because of his friendship with Orr. Friendship is a laudable consideration however. It is more difficult to understand why no action has been taken for two years against the people in the Labor party who have used every possible opportunity to tear Barak down and ruin his chances, and their own party’s chances, for election. Perhaps they are right - he is not a strong enough leader. In Golda Meir’s time, for example, there was order, and any destructive infighting was nipped in the bud. In bad,. American accented Hebrew, she was not above scolding party members as though they were unruly kindergarten children when they acted as such: “Shimon, Shimon, what are you doing? What you are doing is not nice!”

The Labor party has some great assets, but Labor is too paralyzed by infighting, too debilitated by repeated defeats to use them. They have Shimon Peres, a respected elder-statesmen and symbol of peace. Perhaps he cannot be Prime-Minister again, but cooperation between Peres and Barak and inclusion of Peres in a shadow cabinet would not hurt.

The Labor-Zionist movement has a solid record of achievement: the foundation of the first modern Jewish settlements, Jewish self-defense; the creation of the state. The ingathering of immigrants from all countries was also a great achievement, against great odds. It was done imperfectly and left scars. But it was done. They are here. The Labor party has allowed the Likud to call themselves ‘the National Camp.’ So now Israel is divided into the National Camp and the Other Camp (in Hebrew: ‘Hamachaneh Ha’acher’), Brand X presumably. In the best of worlds, silly slogans should not be the basis for people’s decision on how to vote, but this is not the best of worlds. ‘Peres Will Divide Jerusalem’ won Bibi a lot of votes. Why is the Labor party afraid to take back the flag? Why are they afraid to say, ‘We built this country, not just Benny Begin and Bibi Netanyahu. We are proud of what we did, and we learned from our mistakes.”

In the last election, and since, Yitzhak Rabin was conspicuous by his absence. Not only dead, but forgotten it seems. The man whose murder caused such a profound national shock, who had been Mr. Security and had become Mr. Peace, was hardly mentioned in the last election. The Republican party in the U.S. made sure people knew they were the party of Lincoln. Alive, Lincoln had his faults. Martyred, he was a great asset. The Labor party has a genuine hero, a great symbol, but they have not used that symbol. Are the dwarves afraid that if they stand in the shadow of the giant, someone will notice the difference? Are they ashamed to say “this man’s way is our way?’

Ami Isseroff