This past June, the news of a merger between two veteran Israeli political parties on the left of the Zionist spectrum, Labor and Meretz, passed without much fanfare. With the once-hegemonic Labor Party occupying only four of the Knesset’s 120 seats, and Meretz having been wiped out altogether in the 2022 election, that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Lacking a compelling alternative vision to the perpetual subjugation of Palestinians under the boot of the Israeli military, Israel’s parliamentary left — now led by Yair Golan, yet another former army general, who led the calls over the summer for an invasion of Lebanon — has been condemned to irrelevance.
“There is no left-wing politics in Israel; this is a reality many people overlook,” Palestinian activist Hamze Awawde tweeted in July. His remarks came after the Knesset passed a resolution opposing Palestinian statehood by 68 votes to nine, with only lawmakers from Palestinian-led parties voting against it. “While there are some grassroots left-wing movements, left-wing politics as a political force simply doesn’t exist in Israel.”…..more
