Labor MKs Lazimi, Kariv endorse Yair Golan for party leadership ahead of primaries
In implicit rebuke of outgoing party chair Merav Michaeli, ex-Meretz MK Golan pledges ‘to create a large and wide movement’ on the political left
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi endorsed former Meretz MK Yair Golan on Sunday as the next leader of Labor, ahead of the party’s primary election on May 28.
“Together we will build the common home of the Zionist left,” said Kariv — who until this week was seen by many as a possible candidate for leadership of the party — in a joint video address with Lazimi and Golan.
“The responsibility for change and hope is on us,” Lazimi added. “This is our time, join us.”
Kariv has been highly critical of outgoing party chief Merav Michaeli, whom he has accused of working to prevent the party from voting on “the unification of forces on the Zionist left and the holding of joint primaries for the leadership of the bloc.”
Thanking the two Labor lawmakers, Golan pledged “to create a large and wide movement.”
Golan declared his candidacy last month after the party announced the date of its upcoming primary to replace Michaeli as head of Labor, as the once dominant but now marginal left-wing movement struggles to revitalize itself.
Non-members wishing to mount a leadership challenge have until May 1 to join the party and May 5 to announce their candidacies for the May 28 election. Those wishing to join in order to vote in the primaries will have to sign up by May 18.
Promising to bring together a fractured left on the verge of political irrelevance, Golan vowed to “establish a new political framework that will unify the entire liberal-democratic camp under a new label.”
A former IDF Northern Front and Home Front commander, Golan, 61, now a general in the reserves, was passed over for the position of IDF chief of staff in 2018 after delivering a speech in which he likened processes being seen in Israel to what he said were similar “disturbing processes” that took place in Europe in the run-up to the Holocaust.
He served as deputy economy minister during the shortlived multi-party coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, then made a failed bid for the leadership of Meretz ahead of the last elections.
On October 7, the retired general headed to the front line of the Hamas onslaught on his own initiative and rescued many partygoers fleeing the attack on the Supernova music festival, with his bravery garnering him praise from across the political spectrum.
After taking over the party from Amir Peretz in 2021, Michaeli increased Labor’s representation in the Knesset to seven seats, but the improvement in its standing was short-lived and, under her leadership, Labor shrank to the Knesset minimum of four seats in the November 2022 election.
Her decision not to join forces with Meretz was seen as contributing to the latter party’s failure to enter the Knesset, to the detriment of the bloc of parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Labor currently only has four seats in the Knesset and several recent polls show the party failing to cross the electoral threshold.
However, none of the polls ran the scenario of a combined Labor-Meretz slate, which could potentially win more seats than Meretz’s projected four if the party were to run alone.
Asked whether she regretted not agreeing to an alliance in the last election, Michaeli told The Times of Israel in January that while the “failure of the anti-Netanyahu bloc is indeed very distressing,” she felt that she had made “the right decision at the time” — one that had been “backed completely by the faction and by the party.”
She also stated that she felt she was no longer the best person to lead the party, asserting that “if I had the political answer now I would have continued as Labor chair.”
The decision was not fully up to Michaeli, however, as MKs Kariv, Lazimi and Efrat Rayten had begun to take steps against her with the goal of eventually pushing her out of the party.
Rayten has previously said that she would run against Michaeli, as has former lawmaker and ex-public security minister Omer Barlev.
Carrie-Keller Lynn and Michael Horovitz contributed to this report.
