Israel’s new left of center political faction, “Ya’ad” (Destination) chose the new development town of Shlomi near the Lebanese border for its first official meeting Tuesday night. The choice of locale was symbolic in that it is remote from the center of established political power in Israel and its very newness could be said to signify a new political and social era for Israel which is Ya’ad’s stated aim.
The 300 delegates attending the gathering represented a majority of Shulamit Aloni’s Civil Rights Party and a minority of two other dissident movements, Libun and Shinooy. The former was an ideological discussion group within the Labor Party made up primarily of left-leaning “doves” headed by Arye Eliav who defected from Labor last March.
Shinooy, made up of intellectuals and academicians opposed to the government’s policies, split on the issue of merging with Ya’ad. Its leader, Prof. Amnon Rubinstein and a majority of his followers, refused to join the new faction on grounds that its orientation was too far to the left.
But Eliav, a former Secretary General of the Labor Party, did not seem disturbed by the splits and predicted that Ya’ad would become an alternative to the existing regime. Referring to remarks by the Labor Party’s current Secretary General Meir Zarmi, that the movement was a splinter among splinters, Eliav waxed almost poetical.
“We promise ourselves and the people,” he said, “that we shall plant splinters throughout the country, Each splinter will grow into a pearl and all the pearls will become a necklace on Israel’s throat.”
Aloni, who quit the Cabinet of Premier Yitzhak Rabin when the National Religious Party joined his coalition, declared that Ya’ad was an historical must for Israel, “In a society where might is right, where there are compromise agreements between Yitzhak Rabin and Yitzhak Rafael (of the NRP), we are the new light,” she said.
Gen, (Res) Matityahu Peled, who decided to join Ya’ad only shortly before its establishment, said he had believed in the past that it was possible to change the system by working within the existing political framework. Now, he said, he has come to the conclusion that “it was silly to believe this.”
A committee of young Arab political activists in Israel sent a telegram of congratulations to the new movement and said they would join it.
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