Israeli Labor: The Answer?

Settlements on Palestinian land: courtesy Israeli Labor.

Herzog says Labor will continue.
In 2011 former Labor leader Shelly Yachimovich
defended settlements and said:

[I]t was the Labor

Party that founded
the settlement
enterprise in the
territories. That is
a fact. A historical
fact.
Shes right. The settlement enterprise began
under Labor in 1967 and has been pushed hard by
Labor governments.
Settlement numbers from 1972 to 2011 show no
discernible change whatever party is in charge:
settlement growth has been bipartisan.
In fact, settlement growth reached an all-time high
under Ehud Baraks Prime Ministership, in total
defiance of international law.

In the 2015 elections the Zionist front, which

included Labor, offered no peace plan, no freeze on
settlements and no policy to relocate or remove
them.
In fact, Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, said the
election of Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog would
result in five years of negotiations unless this time
Abbas refuses to lend a hand to the farce. Over those
five years the world wont put on pressure. The
occupation will become even more entrenched.
Herzog has said his
government will continue
to build in the settlement
blocs. And, as Levy said,
the last chance for a two
state solution will be
squandered.
Does the drift to recognition of Palestine hurt Israeli
Labor?

On the contrary, it enables Israeli Labor to highlight

Under Baraks Prime Ministership 19992001the
the isolation of Israel as a result of hard-line Likud
settler population on the West Bank rose from 177,411 policies.
to 200,297; in East Jerusalem from 170,123 to 172,250.

Israeli Labor: The Answer?

For example when the House of Commons voted in
favour of recognition of Palestine, Labor leader
Herzog said:

This is another echoing failure from

Netanyahu and Lieberman. A cold wind
is blowing towards Israel from every
corner of the world, but they refuse to
deal with the hard facts and are bringing
a diplomatic storm.
Or in the words of Labor MK Nachman Shai:

The British
Parliaments
decision following
the government of
Sweden proves that
the world is
moving toward unilaterally recognizing a
Palestinian state. Israel is abandoning the
diplomatic arena and is allowing
unilateral Palestinian initiatives that will
ignore Israel and force the rise of a
Palestinian state without a peace
agreement and without recognition.

Alon Liel, a progressive Israeli who formerly headed

its Foreign Ministry criticised the Israel lobby in
Melbourne:

Who are you Israeli

lovers of the
Australia-Israel
Council? Who
authorised you to put
pressure on the
Australian
government on my behalf? Especially
regarding a matter that affects my
familys future? Why are you trying to
ruin my country, pretending you are proIsraeli? What would you do, dear Jew, if
the risk of such isolation was hovering
over the head of Australia, France, or
Canada, countries whose passports you
hold?

Progressive Israelis have welcomed criticism of the

Netanyahu Government and support for the
Palestinians from Australian Labor.
When New South Wales Labor leader Luke Foley
declared all Labor MPs receiving assisted travel to
Israel would be expected to spend an equal time in the
West Bank or Gaza he received a strong letter of
support from the Israeli Peace NGO Forum signed by
Daniel Bar-Tal, Mosi Raz, Dan Jacobson and Alon
Liel. The last is a former director of Israels Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador.
They wrote, [C]oming to Israel and getting
acquainted with only one narrative is equal to
insisting to see the conflict with only one eye.

In the 2013 election Israeli Labor gained only

11 percent of the vote. It has experienced the most
precipitous fall in support of any of the worlds
labour or social democratic parties.
In the 2015 election Israeli Labor entered a
coalition called the Zionist Union with other
parties including that of Tzipi Livni. The coalition
gained only 18 percent of the vote.