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December 13, 2002, 9:45 a.m. What’s the Difference? Likud vs. Labor. By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

lections are upon us in Israel, for the fifth time in ten years. One would expect that by now the main parties competing for our votes would have developed and refined clear lines dividing and defining them. Instead, it appears that the two leading parties, Likud and Labor, are beginning to look more and more alike.

Last week, at a Jerusalem election rally of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Interior Minister Eli Yishai declared that there was no real difference between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (of the right-wing Likud) and the leader of the Labor party, Amram Mitzna. "Mitzna promises a Palestinian state, Sharon promises a Palestinian state, Mitzna says 'return the territories,' Sharon calls that 'painful concessions . . .' What's the difference?" asked Yishai.

Meanwhile, in the Likud itself, Knesset member Eli Cohen has demanded that Sharon resign from the party. This move came after the prime minister's declaration supporting the establishment of a "Palestinian state." Cohen, who heads the Forum for Defending Likud Principles, sent Sharon a letter stating, "Leave [the Likud] and establish your own party for yourself. As a member of Betar and a student of [Zeev] Jabotinsky, I cannot give up even one parcel [of the Land of Israel]." The call for Sharon's resignation, though it has no chance of success, is meant to remind the Likud leader that his own party's Central Committee voted overwhelmingly
against recognition of a Palestinian state just seven months ago.

The Likud membership this week reinforced its position to the right of its leader in the primaries for spots on the party's parliamentary list. In fact, the first ten Knesset candidates on the newly-formed Likud list include only one who openly supports the creation of a Palestinian state: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

He is followed on the list by foreign minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he beat in the primaries for party chairman last month, environment minister Tzachi Hanegbi, who called his placement "a victory for my long-standing hawkish ideology — against a Palestinian state and in favor of a tough stand against Arab terrorism." Hanegbi is followed closely on the list by ministers Limor Livnat, Danny Naveh, and Uzi Landau, in addition to other well-known hard-liners.

Labor party head Amram Mitzna concurred with Hanegbi's analysis, saying that the Likud list reveals the party's true face: "right-wing, with no fresh message or ability to extricate us from the morass. . . . Ariel Sharon will have trouble implementing the moderate line that he is trying to present."

Amram Mitzna himself, of course, represents the farthest left of the left-wing Labor party, in that he calls for negotiations with the PLO, no matter what the security situation, as well as for the forcible transfer of Jewish residents of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, regardless of the progress of negotiations. In other words, Mitzna calls for
announcing surrender and then attempting to negotiate. Even former defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, second on the Labor party Knesset list, warned Mitzna not to drag Labor too far to the left. Fortunately, the Labor party has also repudiated Mitzna's far-left line in primaries this week.

Well-known figures, such as Oslo architect and Shimon Peres protégé Yossi Beilin, were relegated to spots so low on Labor's Knesset list that, based on current surveys of public opinion, it is unlikely they will make it into the Knesset at all. In reaction to the political banishment of Labor's left wing, former Knesset member Haggai Merom said that the nation does not need another "right-wing party; it already has the Likud." Ben-Eliezer disagreed, commenting, "Thank God the list is not a 'left-wing extremist' one."

As the differences between the two largest parties become harder and harder to discern, a smaller faction to the right of Likud may be the main beneficiary. The National Union parliamentary list, a coalition of three right-wing parties, has already drawn several prominent activists who used to represent Likud into the ranks of its supporters, ever since Benjamin Netanyahu attacked Ariel Sharon for his position on Palestinian statehood.

Other smaller parties may also benefit from a realization by Israeli voters that the Likud will almost assuredly put together the next government, and that such a government will, in any case, include the Labor party, as recently reiterated by Sharon. In that case, the average voter may conclude, his vote would be best spent providing for greater representation of his more personal interests. There are plenty of such single-issue or sectoral parties on the Israeli political scene — representing ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, Russian immigrants, religious Zionists, anti-religious secularists, Arab nationalists, taxi drivers, and even marijuana smokers.

With the sectarian parties, the ideological parties on the right and left, and Labor and Likud all working at cross-purposes, it looks to be a very interesting — though perhaps pointless — election.

— Nissan Ratzlav-Katz is opinion editor at www.IsraelNationalNews.com.