Peacenik’s Knesset bid

ERUSALEM – The campaign for the January 22 Israeli election took an interesting turn this week, when it emerged that the head of the anti-settlement Peace Now organisation had resigned from his job in the hope of running for the Knesset for Labour. The entry of this one man, Yariv Oppenheimer (pictured), into the Labour arena may have a major significance on the tone of the whole election season.

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced early elections straight after his address at the United Nations about Iran, almost everyone in Israel was saying that the campaign would be largely about Iran. Yes, various other issues in the mix, but mainly Iran.

The notable absence in predictions about what issues would prove important were settlements and the peace process with the Palestinians. The ruling Likud would be unlikely to put it on the agenda, and the party that normally forces campaigning into this area seemed uninterested in following this tradition.

Since Shelly Yachimovich became Labour leader last year, she has brought the party out of the doldrums – it is currently at the weakest in Knesset it has ever been with just eight of the chamber’s 120 seats – capitalising on the public support for the social protests of summer 2011. She positioned herself as a leader who always talks about social change, and steers clear of the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

But Oppenheimer has built his career and reputation on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and looks poised to revive this strain of Labour’s ideology in the election campaign, specialising on these issues alongside the more domestically-oriented Yachimovich.

Labour is currently polling well, looking set to retake its familiar place as the Knesset’s second largest party and leader of the opposition. The big question is whether a larger focus on the peace process at a time when it appears so stagnant will prove an electoral advantage or a liability.

NATHAN JEFFAY