The Labor Party and Amram Mitzna, who served as party
chairman not long ago, parted company last week. It was not a
particularly festive parting. Not at all. Just a few polite
words and that was it. Mitzna realized that the Knesset no
longer had much to offer him and preferred to go put matters
in order in Yeruchom. But one person did have plenty of
praise for Mitzna—Labor's new chairman, Amir Peretz.
And Peretz knows he must learn from Mitzna's mistakes, or
else he could suffer a similar fate.
The Labor Party is in much better shape now than when Mitzna
stepped in, but this is not enough to guarantee that what
happened to Mitzna won't happen to Peretz as well. For Chaim
Ramon is still in the Labor Party, and so are Dalia Itzik,
Ofir Pines and Yitzchak Herzog—and Shimon Peres,
too.
Mitzna became party chairman with no experience in national
politics. He was too decent and honest, but worst of all he
had no power within the party. To get elected he rode a wave
of popularity as an outsider and expectations among Labor
members he was coming in to save them and put them back in
power. He was also elected because his opponent was Binyamin
Ben Eliezer.
Labor members did not give Mitzna even a one-day grace
period. They saw him as a foreign element that had to be done
away with and as someone trying to snatch the party from
them. They did not forgive him for it until their wishes came
true and Mitzna resigned even though it meant a major loss in
the elections, leaving them with just 19 mandates.
Peretz, on the other hand, is coming from a very different
starting point. He has served as a member of Knesset for 17
years and is very familiar with all the tricks of the trade,
including those of his fellow party members. The battles he
waged as Histadrut chairman also provided him considerable
experience. Peretz is a well-known figure in the Labor Party,
where he has numerous loyal supporters and dedicated
activists who are willing to follow him, come what may.
Furthermore, without casting aspersions on Peretz' decency or
integrity, chas vesholom, he's a real politician just
like all the rest, unlike Mitzna, who was of a different
stripe and had a sense of frankness, honesty and truth not
commonly found in the political spectrum.
But Peretz has one major advantage over Mitzna that has all
of Labor's MKs scared. Mitzna had no influence on the Knesset
list, whereas Peretz will have a great deal of influence,
which he intends to take full advantage of.
Out of the 100,000 Labor voters, nearly 25,000 are loyal
Peretz supporters and in the primaries for the formation of
the Knesset list they will do exactly what Peretz' staff tell
them to do. Every MK big or small is fully aware of the power
Peretz wields and knows if he does not step into line with
the new Party Chairman his chances of receiving a realistic
spot on the list for the next Knesset will drop
drastically.
The Media has its Priorities
The Israeli media is known for its longstanding support for
the Left or a Right-winger who speaks the language of the
Left and carries out the Left's agenda. Someone like Ariel
Sharon and his Disengagement, for instance. But the media's
primary loyalties are to money and economics, and if somebody
tries to hit them in the pocket, they will immediately set
aside all of their beliefs.
Amir Peretz received a mixed reception from the media. Some
said they were waiting for the real victory in the general
elections and some poked fun at him for his inability to
speak decent English while seeking to serve as prime minister
of Israel.
Most rich people in Israel are tied to the Left. But Amir
Peretz will have to watch his step. The moment it realizes
his platform is liable to take away from their bank accounts,
the media will join forces against him, trample him underfoot
and do away with him. And without the media how will he be
heard by the poor of Kiryat Shemoneh and Netivot, Midgal
Ha'emek and Dimona?
Amir Peretz will have to keep in mind that the media never
backed him and his battle in the Histadrut. It always opposed
the big committees, the port workers who earned tens of
thousands of shekels and struck in support of Peretz and the
strikes that cost the economy huge sums.
The media will waver between supporting the issue Amir Peretz
holds dear and their personal economic interests. In the end
their own interests will win out and if Peretz fails to take
this into account, he will pay dearly.
The problem for him is that if he blurs his economic doctrine
he won't have much left to sell in the elections.
