The vacuum on the left
Danny Rabinowitz
Haaretz, 17 December 2002
The removal of MK Tamar Gozansky from the Hadash party Knesset list, the placement of MK Ahmed Tibi in the realistic third slot, and the pushing of the senior Jewish candidate, attorney Dov Hanin, into the borderline fourth slot, when taken together represent a move that is presumably meant to reflect a reasonable mathematical logic. In 1999, Hadash received about 15,000 votes from Jews. Even if this outcome changes, the party's potential electorate in the Jewish sector is apparently lower than the number of votes Tibi will bring. That's why it's worthwhile to invite him and to promote him.
However, the questions aroused by the unification with Tibi reflect an interesting and far broader question relating to the role of Hadash in Israeli society and politics. One approach, identified with the head of the list MK Mohammed Barakeh, sees Hadash as a party rooted in the Arab sector, which regularly provides it with about 90 percent of its votes. According to this approach, Hadash's political platform will be determined by its main role in the Arab sector: to offer a moderate alternative between the Islamic Movement on the one hand, and the isolationist nationalism of Balad on the other.
This approach is of course consistent with the decision of the Hadash institutions to prefer Tibi over a Jewish candidate in a realistic slot. The anti-Arab bon ton among the Jewish public arouses unprecedented skepticism among Arabs in Israel regarding the need and the effectiveness of Arab-Jewish cooperation - skepticism which in certain circles has turned into vociferous and isolationist rejection. The promotion of Tibi at the expense of Hanin can perhaps be interpreted as a signal from the Arab leaders of Hadash to their voters that the list does not blindly seek such cooperation. Such a signal could perhaps earn it more support at the polls in Arab communities.
The second approach, whose most prominent representative is attorney Dov Hanin, is not satisfied with Hadash's traditional role in the Arab sector. Hanin, a second-generation member of the Communist party, has in recent years stood behind several initiatives that examined the possibility of forming political coalitions combining an egalitarian social agenda with environmental issues. He aspires to posit Hadash as the basis of a reorganization of the Israeli left. In this context, Hanin participated in meetings held between representatives of Hadash and MK Roman Bronfman (Democratic Choice), the Green Leaf Party and other social organizations, and he enthusiastically supports turning Hadash into an address for cooperation with a wide range of social-political organizations and movements.
Hanin, who recently returned from a post-doctorate at Oxford University, has a great deal of knowledge on subjects such as global warming and protest movements against globalization, and steps being taken by environmental activists with social awareness in Israel. It's too soon to say if his attempt to turn Hadash into the cornerstone of the reorganization of the left in Israel will succeed. What is clear is that such reorganization is vital not only for the left, but for the political system in Israel as a whole.
The central arena in Israeli politics is dominated by the Likud, Labor, Shinui and Meretz (minus the remainders of Mapam among its ranks) - whose social-economic approaches are known, and relatively similar. It's true the neo-liberalism of Shinui is more extreme, and that the broad range of the Likud and of Labor enables them sometimes to present seasonal, semi-authentic tricks by lone MKs with a sense of social awareness. But the differences between them are not very great. The two immigrant parties share similar basic platforms, as does Shas, which differs from them only in its lack of commitment to proper disclosure. The tendency of its leaders to maintain social gaps is successfully masked by heaps of "social" rhetoric. What is important is that the legislation untiringly supported by Shas suits the hegemonic social-economic agenda.
Dov Hanin knows that to the left of this varied yet uniform bloc of the Israeli center there is a vacuum. The murderous schedule of the present elections may not be optimal for the type of major ideological-political step to which he aspires. But Hanin looks and sounds like a long-distance runner. The seeds he is sowing at present are likely to sprout in the future.
