Labor chief: New alliance with Meretz will be ‘home for liberal-democratic public in Israel’

Labor party chief Yair Golan welcomes Meretz representatives to their first joint weekly faction meeting in the Knesset following their merger yesterday in which they established a new unified left-wing party called the Democrats.

Meretz’s decision to join with Labor “is an integral part of establishing the broad home for the liberal-democratic public in Israel,” Golan tells reporters, saying that the new party’s “most urgent task is to replace the most failed government in this country’s history and to restore hope to Israel.”

“We are a fighting and determined opposition — only such an opposition can be a leadership alternative,” he says.

“We, the Democrats, will be the political framework that will ensure a change of government. We Democrats understand that there is no change of government without offering a value-based, functional and structural alternative for the future of Israeli society. There is a home for the liberal-democratic public in Israel. Welcome,” he says.

Asked how he intends to revive the left as a viable alternative given the rightward shift in Israeli politics in recent years, Golan tells The Times of Israel that “the ideas of left and right are comfortable for Netanyahu [but] they have no connection to the current reality in Israel.”

“Today there is a persistent struggle between the democratic-liberal public in Israel — which sees the State of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people and as equal, free and democratic — and a public that perceives the state as messianic- theocratic or as a state that is a kleptocracy, a state of thieves and robbers whose entire role is to drain the public purse,” he claims.

“That won’t happen. We will never give up,” he says, calling for the redefining of the contours of the political playing field.

Turning to Saturday night’s incident in Tel Aviv in which Labor MK Naama Lazimi was shoved and grabbed by police officers, despite the parliamentary immunity granted to her as a Knesset member, Golan says, “To the men and women of the Israel Police, I want to say clearly: your job is to protect the citizens and their democratic rights. Beware of becoming a violent arm of a criminal minister and an illegitimate government. You too are part of the cornerstone of Israeli democracy. When we return to power we will make sure that Israel has a responsible, professional and dignified police.”