Meretz Matters

What's in a Name? Back to Meretz!

In late June, the Yahad-Social Democratic Israel Party central committee voted to revive "Meretz," the name it abandoned less than a year ago. For a time, the party will be known officially as "Meretz-Yahad" until it returns fully to its prior name. With elections looming by no later than November, 2006, the party realized that it risked contending for votes with a name that was largely unfamiliar to the electorate.

The central committee also completed the party's constitution and appointed party chair, Dr. Yossi Beilin, as its prime ministerial candidate for next year's general election.

In recent weeks, after some internal debate, the party's Knesset faction decided against forcing early elections. As long as progress toward peace is seen as possible with the current Likud-Labor coalition, or no better option is likely, Meretz-Yahad will not join with right-wing opposition parties to vote no-confidence in the government.

Meretz USA in Progressive Coalition for Zionist Congress Elections

Meretz USA also has been planning for an election, scheduled for early 2006, to elect delegates to the next World Zionist Congress, meeting in Jerusalem in June, 2006. Meretz USA has worked cooperatively to shape a broad coalition of the Zionist left - "Hatikva: the Progressive Zionist Coalition" - with Ameinu (formerly the Labor Zionist Alliance), Hashomer Hatzair, Habonim Dror, and the Union of Progressive Zionists (see back cover page).

Staff Coming and Going

Meretz USA has a new director of programming and academic affairs. Mairav Zonszein has moved around the corner from the offices of Meretz USA to become director of the Union of Progressive Zionists (UPZ). She served us ably for one year, during which much of her time was spent vitally assisting the UPZ in its initial year under her predecessor, Ari Brochin. We congratulate Mairav on her new responsibilities and are glad that she will be just a few doors away.

Mairav's replacement has also migrated a few steps from a neighboring office. Miriam Felton-Dansky recently completed a two-year tenure at New Voices, the only national magazine written by and for Jewish college students, where she served as director and then editor-in-chief. Aside from her new duties, Miriam will continue to write freelance articles on arts, cultural issues, and Jewish affairs. She graduated from Barnard College in 2002 with a double degree in history and theater.

Attending European Conference on Anti-Semitism

Executive committee member Moshe Kagan attended the "Conference on Anti-Semitism and on Other Forms of Intolerance," held in Cordoba, Spain on June 8 and 9. This was an official international gathering under the sponsorship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (the OSCE), featuring hundreds of participants and a myriad of multifaceted panels. Moshe attended as a delegate from the World Jewish Congress - an organization in which he has been prominent for many years.

He reports that progress is being made through the OSCE, with its 55 affiliated governments, to acknowledge that Europe has a distinct problem with anti-Semitism. He credits Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, as providing impetus at the previous gathering in Berlin, to sincerely take on this ancient scourge and not to sweep it under the rug as part of a generalized theme of hate and intolerance - as has happened in the past. Moshe looks forward to the next such meeting, hoping to see the unveiling of concrete measures to combat anti-Semitism.

Meeting with Organizer of Conference to Fight Anti-Semitism on the Left

On Sept. 2, Charney Bromberg, Leonard Grob, Ralph Seliger and Mairav Zonszein met with Judy Andreas, the organizer of last year's Oakland, California conference which addressed left-wing anti-Semitism from a progressive perspective. (See pages 3 and 4 of the Winter 2005 issue of IH for an analysis of that conference, under the subhead "Anti-Semitism on the Left.") Those present discussed Ms. Andreas's plans for a similar event in Newark, New Jersey in late March, 2006, and our possible role in it. No decisions were taken, but Ms. Andreas's passion for the subject and her openness to a variety of views were impressive.

Meretz-Yahad Party Head Yossi Beilin on Disengagement's Aftermath

The following is from his open letter to friends of Meretz, dated August 25, 2005:

"We [the Israeli left] must recognize the important precedent that has been set by the evacuation of settlements in Gaza and the West Bank and work to shift Israel from its new unilateralist tendencies back to the path of negotiations. I cannot overemphasize my concern that Israel might get hooked on unilateralism, even with regard to the evacuation of settlements, because such self-centered actions taken alone will not contribute to our long-term security, which ultimately depends on political reconciliation with our neighbors. For this reason, Israel must return to the path of negotiations and do all it can to reach a permanent-status agreement.

".... [T]he benefits to be reaped from negotiations and dialogue were underscored by a transaction that took place against the backdrop of Israel's withdrawal: the successful transfer of the Israeli greenhouses to Palestinian hands. This deal became the bright light in the story of Israel's unilateral disengagement, safeguarding as it did the jobs of 3,500 Palestinians who would have been left destitute had the greenhouses been demolished along with the other Israeli assets left behind in the Gaza Strip. As cofounder and senior researcher at the Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF), the Tel Aviv-based think tank that initiated and worked for the transfer of the greenhouses, I am glad to share with you this important achievement [as reported by Greg Myre in the New York Times, August 13, 2005].

"Allow me to conclude by informing you that the Geneva Initiative coalition in both Israel and Palestine is planning the first-ever simultaneous rally in Tel Aviv and Ramallah on September 24. Together we hope this joint rally will constitute a major show of support for the idea that the time for a permanent-status agreement has come."

MK Vilan Seeking to Advance West Bank Disengagement

On August 30, Meretz MK Avshalom Vilan called upon Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to offer residents of the West Bank compensatory payment for voluntarily leaving their homes. Vilan expressed his hope that the national government will make compensatory payments available to settlers to help persuade them to leave their homes.

Gavri Bargil Reports on Disengagement in Real Time

Mr. Bargil is well known to us as a former shaliakh (representative) from Meretz in the US. He is co-director of the recently unified kibbutz movement. He spoke in a conference call from Israel with the Executive Committee of Meretz USA, August 18, about the success of the disengagement as it was happening.

One reason for the disengagement's success was the massive IDF presence in Gaza, where 50,000 police and soldiers were removing 8,000 residents and approximately 5,000 anti-disengagement protesters. Because the soldiers wouldn't use weapons against settlers, their overwhelming presence discouraged resistance.

Gavri added that this military effort - which, he said, was the single largest operation in IDF history - calls for solidarity and focus within Israel. Once redeployment is complete, the peace camp will launch a major campaign to support moving toward final-status negotiations. Asked about Sharon's political plans post-engagement, Bargil speculated that the prime minister would refrain from making plans for further disengagement at least until after the next elections, and that he would be reluctant to form a government with Shinui and Labor, as some rumors have suggested.

Bargil also commented on the murder of four Palestinians by a radical settler near the settlement of Shiloh in the West Bank. Particularly significant, he said, was the fact that the incident had not been covered by Palestinian media - a sign that the Palestinian Authority sought to prevent rioting and violence, to ensure that the Gaza withdrawal proceeded smoothly.

Visitors from Meretz-Yahad

Within the space of one week in September, Meretz USA hosted visits from three prominent Meretz public officials, providing their perspectives on disengagement and the shape of things to come. Member of Knesset Ran Cohen met informally with Meretz USA on Tuesday, September 13, at our Beit Shalom offices. Frequent flyers, MK Avshalom (Abu) Vilan briefed the executive committee at its meeting of September 15, and Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Yael Dayan spoke at a public forum organized by Meretz USA at Manhattan's Village Temple, on September 20.

A number of us also met in September with Hayim Hayet, the Meretz-elected head of the Hagshama Department of the World Zionist Organization, who discussed the importance of electing more Meretz-affiliated delegates to the World Zionist Congress in order to influence the policies of the WZO and the Jewish National Fund in a more progressive and pluralistic direction.

Sarid on "The Shock of Returning Home"

Meretz MK and former party chair, Yossi Sarid, showed off his poetic side, along with his biting wit, in an op-ed published in Haaretz on July 18, 2005. The following is a sample of what he wrote:

"The disengaged, who have been disengaged from here for too long a time, will swiftly discover that many people in Israel are jobless... As people from the south themselves, they will immediately discern that the unemployment rates are especially high in the south of the country. Even those who work for their living mostly earn a pittance.

"This is not the way things look in the Jewish settlements in the territories, which do not look like everywhere else. Interior Minister Ophir Pines revealed recently that 60 percent of the Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip feed off the government's table. The state has nourished and supported them from its coffers, from our coffers, and there are no unemployed among them, almost. In their new places, they will find out that their country is no longer a welfare state but a profit state, where charity rather than justice prevails...

"The parents among the returnees will be told, in 'The Guide for the Evacuee', that henceforth the education of their children will be a burden on them: No more free education for everyone who comes along and at every age; for day care centers, for example, they will be required to pay a huge sum that is not within the reach of most citizens of this country. Let it be known that only a tiny minority of the children in Israel are offered a long school day deserving of the name, which includes a nutrition program. The evacuees will find it hard to believe: With their own eyes they will see hungry little boys and girls...

"Twenty families a day are evicted from their homes because they have not managed to keep up their mortgage payments. Twenty families are thrown out of their homes into the street every day - ... about 100 families a week, about 5,000 a year. Who has heard about this at all, who has wept a tear for them, who has taken an interest in their traumas, who has provided psychologists and caravillas for them? Since 'our heroic brothers' set out for the territories, the country has changed beyond all recognition. They became 'the salt of the earth' and the country has been covered in sores. This will be a traumatic encounter for everyone, this encounter between the sores and the salt."

'Sparks are flying': A Plea for the Zionist Left to Believe in Itself Again

The following exhortation is from a statement entitled "Time for Left to step up: Left must take advantage of Likud's weaknesses to return to power" by Uri Zaki, chair of the Meretz-Yahad Party's young guard:

"The left must once again believe in itself, and regain the revolutionary zeal it had lost many years ago. It is important to substantiate the fact that a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders is the true Zionist and patriotic solution, especially when one considers the collapse of the right's historical perception.

"At the same time, the left must get back to its real forte: social activism. Amid the unified capitalistic block led by the likes of [ex-]Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, the left must demand the general public retrieve what has been taken away from it by the economic elite, which threatens to create third world-type social gaps and formulate cruel fiscal policies similar to those implemented in America.

"The left must not forgo its Jewish identity and allow the right to claim the Jewish spirit as its own; it belongs to all of us.

"The left is standing at a historical crossroads. Today, more than ever, it can renew the connection it has lost with the different sectors of society - secular and religious, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, Russian and Arab. The left is capable of offering these sectors a bond that would answer to their specific needs and to those of the public in general.

"The change is nearing, the sparks are already flying. The demand is there, now we are in need of leadership that would answer the call. This is the time for the left to step up. This is our time."

Greetings From Italy

This is adapted from a message from Giuseppe Franchetti, a longtime friend to those of us involved over the years in the World Union of Mapam and now the World Union of Meretz:

"We have two organisations tied to Meretz. One is Keshet (the rainbow), which is dedicated to Jewish pluralism, and an organization of secular Jews. We celebrate the main Jewish holidays. At the last Pesakh seder in Milan, we had more than 100 persons (of a total of 8,000-9,000 Jews) and the presence of the president of Italian Jewish Communities. We have a secular yeshiva, with 15-20 participants.

"We publish a magazine, the first ever Jewish magazine in Italy not tied to religion, which publishes all kind of voices, including that of Orthodox rabbis.

"The second one is La Sinistra per Israele (the Left for Israel), which includes Jews and gentiles dedicated to change the image of Israel in the political parties of the left that have an old anti-Israel bias. One member is the general secretary of the Democratic Socialist Party (who is not a Jew).

"Moreover, we have the Italian Zionist Organization, which of course is pluralistic and has people of different political views, but where the alliance of Labor and Meretz has a strong majority."

Visitors from France

It's a coincidence, but old French friends of the family who visited Ralph Seliger in July, from the Alpine vicinity of Grenoble, are members of the Cercle Bernard Lazare, the World Union of Meretz affiliate in France. The Cercle Bernard Lazare has very active chapters in Paris and Grenoble. Another progressive Zionist group, unaffiliated with the Cercle Lazare, is active in Strasbourg.