As Herzog goes, so goes Israel?
The opposition chief is pressured to step down amid probe; some survey results aren’t doing Israel’s good name any favors either
Joshua Davidovich is The Times of Israel's Deputy Editor
Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog has struggled for years to make himself relevant, to overcome his image as a squirrelly career politician from a family of elites with a geeky voice and become the front-page headline grabbing fighting opposition, to little avail.
On Wednesday, though, Herzog at last finds himself near the top of the news agenda, though in a Herzogian twist, it’s not for anything he would want to be in the headlines for. Instead, his name is bandied about as the reason for a reckoning within the Labor Party, thanks to a looming criminal investigation into campaign finance irregularities against him.
Haaretz is the only paper to lead with Herzog’s tale of woe, reporting that Knesset members from his Zionist Union faction are calling for him to suspend himself from his party leadership position while the investigation is ongoing.
“If the investigation doesn’t end quickly, his personal situation might sink the whole ship. Even before this affair, he was portrayed as a not-very-successful opposition leader, unable to guide the opposition with any success. Now his leadership has been damaged in a manner that may be irreversible,” the paper quotes one MK saying.
Commentator Yossi Verter, though, notes that it may be too late to pull the Labor Party out of its morass, which is exactly why former party leaders Shelly Yachimovich and Amir Peretz, who might be next in line to step up if Herzog steps down, are keeping silent and not openly calling for his ouster.
“They’re smart and experienced enough to know that the merchandise isn’t in the best condition. With Herzog or without him, the Labor Party’s brand has peaked, as has that of the joint ticket on which Labor ran in the last election, Zionist Union,” he writes. “Yachimovich and Peretz each headed Labor once before, and neither worked wonders. Both are seen as used goods. They can ensure their party another depressing term in opposition, but they certainly can’t bring it to power. The current situation, in which Herzog remains in the job, bleeding and neutralized, is ideal for both of them right now, just as it is for other potential candidates for the party leadership, such as MKs Erel Margalit and Omer Bar-Lev.”
That’s not to say Yachimovich, who was defeated by Herzog in the party primary now at the center of the probe, is being totally silent. Israel Hayom makes sure to run her quote “a shadow on all of us,” in its headline on the story, though as the text makes clear, the statement was couched in much more cautious terms as she counseled the party to take a wait-and-see approach, noting that the criminal investigation has yet to actually be officially announced.
Commentator Dan Margalit writes that once it is launched, if it is launched, having Herzog stay in power while under a police microscope won’t just look bad for Zionist Union/Labor but for the whole country.
“On the one hand, a criminal investigation while he continues to hold an administrative position, will hurt the good name of the country and could wield an influence over it. On the other hand, attorneys general hesitate time after time, and sometimes a third time just for good measure, before green-lighting an open criminal probe knowing that just having an investigation could (temporarily) put an end to a politician’s career.”
If the left is in trouble, it might not be totally Herzog’s fault. At least that’s the takeaway from a survey published on Israel Hayom’s front page finding that the kids are all right, or at least 58 percent of high school juniors and seniors define themselves as “right,” as opposed to 23% who see themselves as centrists and 13% placing themselves in the leftist camp.
The survey also find high level of support for softball jingoist questions like do you plan on staying in Israel (89%) and do you love Israel/love Israel a lot (85%) and is the IDF the most moral army in the world (85%)? More worrying to some are the 60% of respondents who think the soldier who killed a wounded Palestinian stabber in Hebron should not be put on trial, the 48% who think Arabs should not be allowed to serve in the Knesset and 82% who say there is a slim to none chance of reaching a peace deal.
Commentator Boaz Bismuth, who admits that some of the numbers are somewhat disquieting, especially those seeming to go against democratic and ethical ideals, is still buoyed the survey results, which he says dovetails with surveys of the general Jewish Israeli population, you know, the ones that find rampant racism in Israeli society.
“So what does all this say? That at the end of the day, our youth are similar to their parents,” he writes. “In our case, this is actually heartening: Our youth, most of all, are patriots. We have who to rely on.”
Is it any surprise Israel’s youth see little hope, though, when the media are so willing to play up fears all around. Gaza has been mostly quiet for the last year and a half, but that doesn’t stop Yedioth Ahronoth from eagerly jumping from the sputtering intifada to what is says are growing threats from Hamas in the south, and not just from tunnels.
The occasion for the report, which leads the paper (though the tabloid’s front page is mostly concerned with the ongoing Inbal Or soap opera and how many Rolex watches the fallen real estate mogul owns –2), is a visit to the south by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.
“Ya’alon explained that Hamas is looking for ways to up its threats in the air, land and sea. The IDF may have attacked during Operation Protective edge the Hamas ‘drone base, a kind of flyer the group would use, but according to Ya’alon, Hamas is now working on building UAVs, with financing and help from Iran,” the paper reports. “Hamas has also put an emphasis on improving its abilities to infiltrate Israel by sea … Ya’alon went on to give his opposition to building a sea port in Gaza, a plan being pushed by Transportation Minister and colleague Yisrael Katz.”
Haaretz’s Amos Harel writes a commentary about Ya’alon’s other big move Tuesday, nominating Udi Adam to head the Defense Ministry, though the paper (accidentally) leaves off the news story about Adam being tapped.
No matter, Harel says the choice of Adam is not just right for the country, but also important in correcting the wrong of the general having been forced out of the army in 2006 following the Second Lebanon War, which he commanded.
“In deciding to leave, he was the only one that acted as a real soldier,” Harel writes. “A few months later, the rest of the command structure was also forced out, from the chief of staff to the defense minister.”
