The Knesset's revolving door

EDGAR ASHER ISRANET

This past week has seen two very significant changes in the Israeli political scene. Both changes were predictable, but until they actually happened, there was always the possibility that the unpredictable might occur.

On June 12, in a second run-off ballot, former prime minister and former head of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Ehud Barak was elected leader of the Israel Labor party by a slim six per cent margin over his rival, Ami Ayalon. Ayalon also came from the Israel security services, as at one time he had been an admiral in charge of Israel's navy and also had a spell as the head of the intelligence service, the Shin Bet.

On June 13, Shimon Peres was elected to be Israel's ninth president, to replace the disgraced Moshe Katsav. In a second ballot in the Knesset, Peres received 86 votes from a possible 120 votes, as the other two contenders, former Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin and Labor party MK Collette Avital, both dropped out of the race.

Both the Labor party and presidential elections are important in their own way, although the Labor party is far more significant, as its leader, in theory, can become the country's prime minister. The president has no real power, but nevertheless is meant to be a calming and authoritative influence in an often turbulent and unpredictable country.

It is, therefore, surprising that both elections and, in particular, the presidential election, are decided by very few selected individuals. It could be said in the case of the Labor party that internal elections are their own business and, if one wants to participate in leadership elections, join the party. This argument is flawed because leadership elections in a political party are usually between members of the Knesset who have never really been elected by popular public vote. In last week's Labor leadership election, one of the two front runners, Barak, is not currently a member of Knesset. The Labor party machine can change all that and give Barak a Knesset seat at the expense of making another Labor MK give up his.

The presidential race is decided only by members of the Knesset. The vote for the president is the one time that the MKs vote secretly. With the exception of the distinguished scientists Chaim Weizmann (Israel's first president) and Ephraim Katzir (Israel's fourth president), all presidents have been former members of Knesset. There is no input at all from any other sector or cross-section of Israeli society.

Without detracting from the suitability of Peres to be so honored, it must be said that there are many individuals, without political backgrounds, who would fulfil such a position very well. Following the death of Weizmann in 1952, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, offered the post of president to Albert Einstein. Einstein declined and wrote from Princeton: "I am deeply moved by the offer from our state of Israel and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it."

Peres, now 83, has been described by several Israeli newspapers as a "serial loser." In spite of winning a Nobel Prize for peace and holding, for a time, the posts of prime minister, finance minister, vice-premier and defence minister, he has never had a big public following at home, despite the fact that he is today probably Israel's most well-known politician abroad and has served in the Knesset since 1959, almost without a break.

His record of losing stems from the time when he challenged Yitzhak Rabin for the leadership of the Labor party in 1977, and lost. When Rabin was murdered in 1995, Peres became prime minister, but in a general election shortly afterwards, Peres lost again, this time to Menachem Begin's Likud party. In 1984, Peres, as head of the Labor party, won a general election, but not a majority in the Knesset. He, therefore, had to do a deal with the Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir and share power – each would be prime minister in rotation for two years. In 1996, in Israel's first and only direct election for prime minister, Peres was defeated by Binyamin Netanyahu. In 2000, Peres ran for the post of president and lost that to Katsav.

Barak has a distinguished military record, as well as being a former Labor party leader. He spent 36 years in the IDF and is Israel's most decorated soldier. He served as IDF chief of staff and was the architect of the rescue of the hostages from Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976. After leaving the IDF in 1995, Barak entered politics and became a protégé of Rabin. When Peres lost the 1996 election, Barak was chosen to replace him as party leader. In 1999, Barak was elected prime minister but, due to the humiliating withdrawal of IDF forces from southern Lebanon, together with the start of the second Palestinian uprising in 2001, a new election was called. In 2001, Barak was defeated by Ariel Sharon in a bitter election battle. Barak had failed to bring peace to the region, despite being prepared to give the Palestinians in the 2000 Camp David summit 90 per cent of all territory occupied in the 1967 war, including sovereignty over the Arab parts of Jerusalem, but not the Temple Mount.

Sharon's decisive victory signalled a temporary end to Barak's political career. He left Israel to work in the United States. In 2005, Barak declared his intention to return to politics. Labor party supporters were not so keen to see him return and early polls showed that he had little support. He dropped out of the race and declared his support for Peres as party leader. Peres lost the race to former Histradut trade union leader Amir Peretz. Peretz, a man of no military experience, was appointed defence minister by Ehud Olmert after Olmert's Kadima party won 28 seats in the 2006 election and formed a coalition with Labor. The Winograd Commission on last year's Second Lebanon War found Peretz incompetent as defence minister and he was forced to stand down as Labor leader.

Both Peres and Barak must be awarded maximum points for tenacity. However, neither man can say that they have achieved their aims with full public support. The presidency is an exclusive perk that is decided by an equally exclusive club. Being a member of the Knesset is signing up to a party machine that demands party loyalty, but not really being answerable to any electorate. It is true that, every few years, the Israeli public have the right to vote for a particular party list. That is the point: within a party, there will be some first-class, public-minded and public-spirited individuals, but they will be in the minority. A politician who does not make the grade is answerable only to his peers. In many cases, his peers will overlook his shortcomings, saying to themselves, "There but for the grace of G-d go I."

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