Jerrold Kessel: In Israel, a battle for Labor's soul

Jerrold Kessel

Q: What was the tone of the debate at Labor's Central Committee meeting Monday?

KESSEL: It was rowdy, unruly, impassioned and at times downright antagonistic. Labor has a good record of getting involved in passionate debates, but they're normally old-style Socialist dronings-on. This had nothing of that.

This was, as some political commentators put it, very much in the mode of the right-wing Likud -- boisterous, angry scenes, shouting on the floor, gesticulating ... It's very much a leaderless party at the moment and there's an element of chaos about it.

Q: What will be Labor's share of Cabinet seats in the Sharon government, and which ones are they expected to get?

KESSEL: They will get eight out of 28. The two key ones will be the Foreign Ministry and Defense. Another important one is called Infrastructure, which is really about building. It gives you the capacity to build in the settlements in the occupied West Bank, and road-building. It has a lot of money at its disposal, that ministry, and you can use a lot of political clout with it.

The others are less significant. What is perhaps significant is that none of them are the classic social portfolios like education or welfare or health, where you can influence social policy.

That's been one of the objections of the opposition, who say Labor won't be able to influence, as (Labor leader) Shimon Peres believes, the direction of peacemaking ... that will be determined by Mr. Sharon. They argued that Labor, if it was going in, should try to shape social policies in a way that will gain itself some political credit for the future.

Q: Beyond dealing with the Palestinians, what differences will Labor and Likud have to bridge in a unity government?

KESSEL: For years many people have been saying they are closer than their history advises -- that they do in fact reflect pretty much the same socio-economic policy structure. When Labor or Likud held the key finance portfolios, they pursued very much the same economic policies. If there is a difference between Labor or Likud, it is on the level of (international) policy and relations with the Arab world.

Q: Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak tried to build a national unity government and failed. How has Sharon managed to convince Labor to join him?

KESSEL: You could say in retrospect it was a colossal political error by Labor, and some of the anger is directed against the doves, or the moderates, in the Barak government who had said they didn't want a national unity government. They didn't want to be constrained by the Likud. Barak wanted Likud to be in power, and knew they would restrain him. What did it get him? He fell from power, because in the elections, his policies were well and truly voted down.

Had he gone in with the restraining hand of Sharon and the Likud before, there would not have been an election and he still would be prime minister. He might not have been able to carry through some of the far-reaching elements of his policy, but he would have still been able to put them on the table and allow them to come up for a vote.

Q: Israel will face another election in two and a half years, if not sooner. How is Labor going to campaign as part of the government?

KESSEL: Why this debate today was seen as so crucial was it was a debate not only over joining the Sharon government, it was a debate over Labor's future. You had the same constellation of forces arguing as they did for and against going into a national unity government.

There are those who say we've got to go in or we will cease to exist as a party and this is our way of resurrecting ourselves; and the others who say exactly the opposite -- that this is the first step toward Labor's total demise, the beginning of the funeral of the Labor Party. ... They say it will simply become the pale version of the Likud.

That remains to be seen, but those arguments were made very, very forcefully. At the moment, to an objective observer it seems as though Labor does not have a cohesive or very distinct not just ideology, but identity.

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