It was a victory that left veteran politician and leader of Israel’s Labor Party Shimon Peres stunned. Who would ever have imagined that a relatively low-profile Moroccan-born former rose-grower could have toppled the grandfather of the left in such a spectacular fashion? And especially since Labor has long been a virtual Ashkenazi (European Jews) club treated with suspicion by Israeli Jews originating from North Africa and the Middle East.
The Peretz coup not only caught Peres napping but also Israeli leader Ariel Sharon whose ruling coalition could be faced with a Labor defection, forcing him to bring elections forward to the spring and leaving him vulnerable to being punished by his own Likud Party for the Gaza withdrawal.
Sharon has denied it, but there is a good chance that rather than stay with a Likud led by the right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister might decide to form a new centrist party that would attract not only relatively dovish Likudists but also disillusioned Laborites, including, perhaps, Shimon Peres himself.
Son of assassinated Israel leader Yitzhak Rabin, whom the late Yasser Arafat affectionately labeled his “partner in peace”, has already lent his support to the centrist idea, whereas Rabin’s daughter Dalia is standing firmly with Peretz, saying he always enjoyed her father’s trust.
In this way, the Israeli political landscape would see a dramatic change — Israeli papers deem this “the big bang” — and, for the first time in decades, voters would be offered a spectrum of options.
If Sharon does decide to take the middle lane, polls predict he has a good chance of hanging on to the prime ministerial mantel but only with a tiny majority when yet another coalition government would be on the cards.
But nothing is cast in stone as many Eastern Jews, whose dislike of elitist Labor politicians has traditionally prompted them to join the Likud, could swing behind one of their own.
If this occurs, it will be good news for the Palestinians because Peretz has long been a proponent of peace and has championed a Palestinian state since the 80s when he organized a major peace rally at a time when it wasn’t fashionable to do so. And since his takeover of Labor, he has vowed to put the dismantling of West Bank settlements on his election ticket.
Israel writer and head of the Gush Shalom peace movement Uri Avnery has gone so far as to call the Peretz takeover a “great miracle” and believes his appointment could “change the future of the country”.
However, Avnery doesn’t allow his enthusiasm to run riot, saying, “All this is not yet a reason for dancing with joy in the streets. We may be disappointed. Peretz is facing a daunting series of tasks: To unify his party; to clear away the Peres heritage; to infuse new blood into the party; to win the next general election; to become prime minister; to introduce a new social policy and to make peace.”
Whatever the election outcome the Israeli society has at last got itself a real “man of peace” and one with a social conscience who isn’t tainted by accusations of war crimes, hidden agendas or corruption scandals. This is a man who is asking for “a more human Israeli society” and an ethical road map “grounded in the values of human dignity and human equality” while calling for “the end of occupation and the pursuit of peace”.
Moreover, this is a man who knows what it’s like to suffer not only from deprivation but also from disability. When as a four-year-old he arrived with his family from Morocco in search of a better life there came a rude awakening.
Like many other Sephardic Jews, the family was dumped in the Western Negev desert and told to get on with it. Out of the sands, the blue-collar town of Sderot emerged where later Peretz struggled for social justice eventually becoming mayor.
Peretz had been wounded while completing his military service and spent a year in a hospital and another in a wheelchair. Rather than feel sorry for himself he soon bought a farm and concentrated on the task of growing garlic and roses.
Preferring to grow the social consciousness of his compatriots, he later campaigned for workers’ rights, free health care and education as well as the preservation of the environment for the generations to come.
As leader of one of the most powerful Israeli trade unions the Histadrut, Peretz ensured the union’s protection of Palestinian workers and has rattled the Knesset on behalf of pensioners, the unemployed, single mothers and the disabled in numerous public battles against Netanyahu’s hard— line fiscal policies.
Judging by his record and personal demeanor Amir Peretz is one of the nice guys, a rare breed within most political hierarchies and especially Israel’s. Could he succeed where so many others have failed to take his country down the road to peace? Here’s what I think.
If Peretz can mobilize the left and at the same time attract Sephardic Jews to his party by promising to bridge the long-standing Ashkenazi-Sephardic ethnic divide, then he has a good chance of winning the general election.
Once in office, he must consolidate already established links with Palestinian leaders and make new ones — which he is in a perfect position to do in light of his professed ideology and clean past.
Once a trust factor is established between the two sides and a unified strategy put forward then the international community and, in particular, the US will have little choice but to rally around in earnest.
Will there ever come a day when Amir Peretz and Mahmoud Abbas will talk about the bad old days over a game of backgammon and a glass of mint tea in the Palestinian capital of Jerusalem? I won’t hold my breath...but, then again, miracles do happen. And if anyone can pull this off I’m betting on a mustachioed compassionate rose-grower armed with a new moral map and a ready smile.
