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Israel's War-Weary Left Gets New Hope
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Israel's
War-Weary Left Gets New Hope
Amram Mitzna set to be leader of Labour party Former general talks
frankly about the price of peace
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by
Mitch Potter
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JERUSALEM—As politicians go, Amram Mitzna appears unworthy of the word.
Neither a kisser of babies nor a shaker of hands, the longtime mayor of Haifa,
Israel's third-largest city, is utterly bereft of the breezy, commanding charisma
one associates with the modern-day political animal.
Amram Mitzna, center right, the mayor of the Israeli port city of Haifa and, according
to polls, front-runner in the elections for the Labor Party leadership is hugged
by a supporter during a visit to a polling station in downtown Jerusalem Tuesday
Nov. 19, 2002. Mitzna is running against current Labor leader, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer,
who served as defense minister in a so-called national unity government with Ariel
Sharon and legislator Haim Ramon. Mitzna made an election day promise to dismantle
Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip immediately if he becomes prime minister.
(AP Photo/Enric Marti)
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Slow with a sound bite, lacking in podium polish, wholly unsuited to the dark
art of tearing at an opponent's Achilles heel, Mitzna seems from a kinder, gentler
place and time. Nice guy, perhaps, but no match for the realpolitik of the war-weary
Middle East, where nice guys get eaten for breakfast.
How then does one explain the runaway train that appears almost certain to deliver
Mitzna to the top of the Labour party tomorrow, when the centre-left bloc meets
to select its next candidate for prime minister?
Slick, he is not. But a succession of polls show the dovish, plain-spoken former
military commander is widening his lead, with nearly twice the support needed
to topple party leader and ex-defence minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.
If the polls translate into votes, a single ballot is all it will take tomorrow
to give the disillusioned dregs of what used to be called the peace camp something
they haven't had in two bloody years.
Hope. Someone, and something, to believe in. An intelligent realist who promises
to resume negotiations with Palestinians right here and right now, regardless
of the situation on the ground. He will negotiate, if necessary, with Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat, if no alternative can be found.
"At a time when Israelis are absolutely fed up with political foxes of all stripes,
along comes this soft-spoken man who isn't one of them," said political scientist
Susan Hattis-Rolef, a former editor of the Labour journal Spectrum.
"He doesn't show off, he doesn't raise his voice. He's the opposite of what we
call a schvitzer. Yet he has the courage to talk openly and frankly about
the price of peace.
"I think there's a kind of nostalgia at play here. Mitzna's the last of the old-time
Israelis, the ones who are quietly confident and don't need to use purple bravado
to make their points."
At 57, Mitzna deports himself with rumpled casualness reminiscent of late Canadian
broadcaster Peter Gzowski. Bespectacled, though his glasses show no hint of fashion,
and sporting a salt-and-pepper beard, he works the campaign trail in an open collar,
rather than the requisite suits of his opponents.
Driving his own car between engagements, Mitzna seldom travels with a political
entourage in tow, a sign, skeptics say, of political naivety that will likely
come back to haunt him before the elections in January.
Yet Mitzna is not quite the political neophyte he seems. He is favourably regarded
for his steady stewardship of Jewish-Arab relations in Haifa, which has thrived
under his nine years as mayor.
But most of all, he is remembered as a principled moderate who followed through
with a rare demonstration of the courage of his convictions during his days as
a military commander.
In September, 1982, as a brigadier-general, Mitzna put his career on the line
when he challenged then defence minister Ariel Sharon over the invasion of Lebanon
and the subsequent massacres at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
Declaring in a letter to the army chief of staff that he had "no confidence" in
Sharon, Mitzna launched battle of wills that now appears likely to play out once
again. Despite a strong challenge from former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
Sharon appears likely to prevail as leader of the hard-line Likud party in primaries
scheduled for later this month.
Such a scenario sets the stage for January elections that will present to Israelis
a clear choice between left and right. Sharon, offering more of the hawkish anti-terror
stewardship Israel has seen over the past 22 months versus Mitzna, offering to
open the diplomatic window even as the fighting continues.
Undoubtedly, Mitzna is the choice of Israeli leftists appalled by the Labour party's
role in Sharon's now-disbanded national unity government, where Ben-Eliezer worked
in lockstep espousing policies virtually indistinguishable from those of Likud.
They see in Mitzna a fresh incarnation of slain Labour prime minister Yitzhak
Rabin — a military hawk turned political dove — who will restore their
party to a path of peace.
Mitzna's uncommon frankness is music to their hearts. Since declaring his candidacy
in August, Mitzna has spelled out his scenarios for peace, including Jerusalem
as the capital of two states and the evacuation of most Israeli settlements in
the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to allow for Palestinian
statehood.
Such a platform invites skeptics to label him an ultra-leftist, likely to lead
Labour down the garden path to oblivion.
But Mitzna maintains instead he is a "patriot" in the truest sense of the word.
"To be an Israeli patriot today means to leave Hebron and Kiryat Arba and also
the Gaza Strip — to the last centimetre," Mitzna said last week.
But in today's Israel, the political centre of gravity has moved steadily to the
right during two years of violence awash with affected patriotism. Mitzna may
take the party, but the odds are very heavily against him persuading the country
that Labour is once again a viable alternative to the seemingly intractable status
quo.
"At the moment a Mitzna win seems very far-fetched," said Leslie Susser, diplomatic
editor of Jerusalem Report magazine. "But one never says never, because
Israel has a tradition of achieving far-fetched political results.
"The very fact that Netanyahu defeated Shimon Peres to become prime minister after
trailing by more than 20 percentage points stands as the most dramatic example
in recent times," Susser added. "It will be interesting to see how far Mitzna's
appeal can take him. There's no question he is seen as a different kind of politician,
a real salt-of-the-earth Israeli and that is getting through to people."
There are other factors that could throw a wrench into the election forecasts.
Many Israelis seem to have not yet absorbed the fact they are returning to a single-ballot
format in January. For the past three elections, voters had the luxury of two
ballots — one for their party of choice, another for their leader of choice.
This time, the format returns to party only.
"The two-ballot system was a disaster for Likud and Labour, weakening them and
allowing for the rapid growth of smaller parties," said Hattis-Rolef.
"All that fragmentation made Israel much less governable. But will that turn around
in a single election? Most people think it will ultimately benefit Likud and Labour,
but not all at once."
Like many Israeli peaceniks, outspoken Israeli journalist Uri Avnery has come
to embrace Mitzna as the only hope. After 20 months as Sharon's "despised mistress,"
Labour must now reform itself as a fighting opposition to attract those disenchanted
with the right, Avnery wrote last week in the newspaper Haaretz.
Regardless of whether he wins or loses the January election, Mitzna must promise
not to allow Labour to reform its unity alliance with Sharon's Likud. Such a fate
will not only destroy the party, Avnery said, but likely kill any hope of peace
for years to come.
Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited
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