With less than two weeks to go before the do-over election, reactions have been mixed to the Democratic Union's campaign. On one hand, and this is something the Right will also admit, the campaign is in full force, with party members Ehud Barak and Stav Shaffir maintaining a constant presence out in the street, online and in the media, and sometimes even setting the day's agenda. On the other hand, and here Barak and Shaffir are deserving of special attention too, they are also drawing quite a bit of fire.
"I am not doing this campaign to find favor, and for the Right to say, 'They're so nice. What humanists. How sweet,'" Democratic Union leader Nitzan Horowitz tells me when I ask whether the party has gone too far and whether there is any risk that the style and some of the content of his party's campaign could antagonize voters.
"I am running an aggressive and combative campaign because it's a campaign. You use it to fight. It's a boxing ring. The Right and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu have never met a trick they didn't like. And believe me, our public also really likes that we are going out and fighting and sticking it to them."
Q: Some will say you have become the students of Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump; you have demarcated an enemy. Take, for example, Meretz's campaign against religification, among many sectors, it has already come to be seen as a caricature of itself.
"It doesn't go far enough. … When I see the extent of the problem that exists in the education system, I see the sense among the secular public on these issues, I am telling you that this is actually too refined a campaign. When a minister in the government, who is also a member of the cabinet, [United Right's Bezalel] Smotrich says that the state should be governed according to Jewish law, and we need to go back to the days of King David, do you know what that means? That means that women in [Israeli] society will have no legal standing. That means that half of the population will not have any rights, let alone those who aren't Jewish."
"These are not just declarations, unfortunately. In schools, there are hundreds of instances, and we receive reports that bring in so-called issues of modesty in children's attire, that want girls not to wear shorts that are too short, that bring in religious content to the schoolbooks in fields that are irrelevant to religion, like math or English. I respect religious people, my father is a religious man. I have nothing against them. I have a problem with coercion and with them taking an audience captive, like children in school or soldiers in an army unit, and forcing this on them. And when we come out against it, we are accused of anti-Semitism."
According to Horowitz, "When we call to separate religion from politics, that means from the state systems, like the education system, government institutions – these should not be connected to religion and religious elements. In a situation of religious freedom and freedom from religion, there is freedom for everyone, including for the religious, but also freedom for me."
"Let me give you an example: public transportation on Shabbat, something this government has blocked – including [Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor] Lieberman, who time and again voted with the coalition and with the haredim against all these proposals. He was also against civil marriage and LGBT rights. Now, in this last campaign, he has discovered secularism and has become the knight of the secular [population]. That just shows you how stressed and worried people are by the issue. I think it scares the majority of Israel's population, and I see the responses that we get."
Horowitz was elected the leader of the Meretz party in June, and around a month later, he joined forces with former Prime Minister Barak and Shaffir to establish the Democratic Union. But what at first looked like a game-changer for the Left is now slowly approaching the modest scope typical of Meretz, at least according to the polls.
Q: With a month's perspective, is Barak an asset or a liability?
"He is an excellent addition to the campaign. He is unusually eloquent and he is fascinating. Tons of people ask to invite him to events and conferences because he just gives the most impressive performance. And that is not just rhetorical ability but based on experience and a very impressive intellect. The man was prime minister and defense minister and chief of staff – the most decorated soldier in the IDF."
Q: Yes, but there is a cloud hanging over him, in the form of his ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"He has addressed these things himself and in a very forceful manner. But you know, when you put this talk opposite what we are up against, which is Netanyahu and the investigations and the allegations – and it's not just Netanyahu, it's a whole other series of figures in the government, then I think it doesn't compare. And let's be clear, unlike Netanyahu or [Shas party leader Aryeh] Deri, or Likud MK David Bitan [who is under investigation for bribery], or [recently resigned Welfare Minister] Haim Katz, Ehud Barak has not only not been accused or suspected of anything, he has not been under investigation and no complaint has been filed against him. … It's all just affairs, the majority of which, I'm telling you, they are making up and blowing out of proportion because of the campaign. Our public isn't impressed."
Q: All of the stories coming out of there, they don't bother you at all?
"The future of democracy in the state worries our public much more, and Ehud Barak is one of the most forceful and piercing speakers on this matter today."
Q: Then why is he in the 10th slot on the party list?
"That was his choice. Because he said, 'I am not setting myself up as a leader, but I want this alliance. I want this chance to create a more significant Left, and that is why I am willing to step back. I will be the one who connects, who brings [new people to the party]."
Q: So there's no concern you might squander away what former Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg managed to achieve with Arab voters in the last election?
"You would be surprised how many requests we get from Arab communities that want to host Barak at conferences and in their homes, from Bedouins in the south to communities in the north."
Q: So it's just a myth that Barak is very unpopular among members of Arab society as a result of the deaths of 13 Israeli Arabs during the Oct. 13 riots in 2000 that marked the outbreak of the Second Intifada?
"Barak spoke about this in a very serious manner, especially since this was 20 years ago. Jews and Arabs see what we offer on the issues that matter to them. I think that this is the focus, and not the things that once were, which are unfortunate and difficult, no doubt. If we look forward, on the subject of equality and the struggle against racism, the Democratic Union is the leading list."
Q: Bringing Barak on board, giving Shaffir and former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan the first spots behind you on the list, aren't you taking something of a gamble at Meretz's expense here?
"The opposite is true. It has only increased our power. … We made a move to connect [with other parties] in order to bring in additional communities and make it to the election with totally different numbers, without any gevalt [campaign] and without stories about the electoral threshold."
Q: But you started off in a great position, with 10 to 12 potential seats, and you have only been losing seats since then.
"Three years ago, I was the TV correspondent for the election in the US. For a year, all of the polls indicated there would be a crushing victory for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, and something entirely different happened. You need to examine what it is you care about, what is important to you here in the state: for there to be freedom, peace, equality, or religification, racism, coercion? You need to vote with this in mind. Parties that are not ideological and lack values disappear. We have had all kinds of centrist parties that have been established and received dozens of Knesset seats and simply disappeared later – like soap bubbles – without a trace. And look, although Meretz over the years has never been a giant party, it has left a deep mark on Israeli society. It's not just a matter of size; it's a matter of fighting spirit and the values you believe in. That is what we are trying to do with the Democratic Union, and that is in complete contrast to a party like Blue and White, which is failing."
Q: You call 35 Knesset seats and some polls predicting Blue and White will overtake the Likud "failing?"
"It lacks a fighting spirit; it's failing. It is now supposedly the opposition in the Knesset, right? So in the few tests there have been, for instance with the appointment of the state comptroller, they failed. Even on the issue of the dissolution of the Knesset, they didn't make the necessary effort to prevent it. And when I see the dereliction, the complacency, the smugness, then I think there needs to be a far more biting, kicking and aggressive alternative; one where you know we will fight. We won't go to sleep the day after."
Q: So, what's the plan? To motivate Blue and White?
"It's a shame they haven't motivated themselves. I shouldn't have to motivate them. I motivate us, the Democratic Union. And we will watch them in the Knesset, to make sure that they don't wander too far to the Right. A majority of their voters are center-left voters – Labor and Meretz. The Zionist Union was 24 [Knesset seats], went down to six. All of its voters went over to Blue and White, even a small portion of Meretz [voters] went over to them. They need to understand that a vote for Blue and White is a vote for the Right, plain and simple. They are already saying it now; they are declaring that they want to join the Right [in a coalition government], that is why they are actually misleading their voters, a majority of whom are center-left."
"I care about the center-left votes, which should go to a party like ours, a party that fights for these principles of equality, freedom, peace, and not a party that will sell out for an alliance with the Right."
Q: What about the Labor-Gesher alliance? Their members haven't ruled out the possibility of joining a Likud government.
"I made a great deal of effort to join Meretz with the Labor party, and I discovered that at the same time as he was negotiating with us, [Labor leader] Amir Peretz was engaged in negotiations with [Gesher party chief] Orly Levy-Abekasis, who left Yisrael Beytenu. Amir, in essence, abandoned the peace camp and our bloc, and I say this with great sadness – turned his back on us, on those who should have been his natural partners, for an alliance with the Right."
"We had an opportunity to establish a large left-wing party, which could garner around 20 Knesset seats. Those who want left-wing values – not just society and economy, but also the diplomatic issue and the separation of religion from politics, this can now only be found in the Democratic Union. We are the only list that focuses on diplomatic, issues, perhaps outside of Netanyahu from the other direction, who announced there would be an annexation while in Elkana."
"The Labor party has folded up this flag, which at one time was its principle flag. A lot of people from the Labor party are now coming over to us, a lot of people who were disappointed by the direction that Amir Peretz is taking [the party], and by the abandonment of entire fields that are at the core of left-wing values."
Q: I understand what you are saying about Peretz and Blue and White, but I what I see on their part is a willingness to concede a little bit on ideology in order to form a national unity government through which they can bring their agenda to the government table.
"If you are center-left, if you adhere to a certain ideology and you enter politics to promote it, to represent a public that believes in that [ideology], and then the next day, you take all that, throw it in the garbage and go and join Netanyahu, someone whose policies are all too known, [what does that say]?"
"We need to once again ask Blue and White and the Labor party: Whose side are you on?"
Q: But how feasible is the other option? It's not like there will be some deus ex machina that will grant another 20 Knesset seats to the Left.
"No, but the fact is that Netanyahu didn't succeed in forming a government in the last election. We will make every effort, and the bigger we are, the [greater the] chance that Blue and White will move in our direction and there will be a center-left government. That's all there is to it. They're already saying that their stated and perhaps only goal is to go with the Right, with the Likud. To our mind, that isn't change; it's voter fraud."
Q: When one looks at your campaign and your insistence on not joining a national unity government, a Likud-led government, and given the campaign against religification, I assume a government with haredim, that sends the message to me as a voter that it's not governing but fighting that you're interested in.
"You're wrong. First of all, as a right-wing voter, we are not addressing you. We are addressing the center-left voters that want a party that will first and foremost represent them and fight for them. And yes, our aspiration certainly is to join the government. You want me to ask, what will carry more weight, ideology or practicality? Pragmatism or ideas?"
Q: Isn't that the question one asks an ideologue in politics? We are in an election campaign. It's realpolitik.
"To my mind, there is no major contradiction between ideology and practicality. If you work correctly, you can integrate your ideology with practical leadership in order to amass more power. Those who vote for us know … what we will fight for. I hope that that will draw people who in the last election voted for Blue and White, who are our people and need to come home. With us, we don't take what people believe in and after the election, toss it in the garbage to get some, I don't know, job in the Likud. People need to understand that. In this election, it's their choice."
