Haim Watzman For years I have preached against small parties. Whenever my friends get excited by the latest new and fashionable political movement or the latest political star whose ego-trip involves founding and leading his own party, I’ve warned that a vote cast for a small party is both wasted and wanting. Wasted because, in [...]
Why I’m Going Green
December 15th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Politics and Policy
Tags: environment·green movement·Israeli politics·Labor Party·Meretz·Zionism
Requiem for Sini, and for the Labor Party
December 4th, 2008 · No Comments · Politics and Policy
Gershom Gorenberg My new piece on the Labor Party is up at The American Prospect: Sini died. My son spotted the square black-bordered obituary notice deep inside the newspaper. It was placed by Sini’s kibbutz. It referred to him as “Sini,” his nickname — “Chinaman” in loose translation, politically incorrect today but accepted when he [...]
Tags: Ahdut Ha'avodah·Arnan Azaryahu·Ehud Barak·Golda Meir·Labor Party·Levi Eshkol·Mapai·Shimon Peres·Sini·Unity of Labor·Yigal Allon·Yisrael Galili·Yitzhak Rabin
Left Behind: Why a New Party Won’t Save Social Democracy in Israel
November 19th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Politics and Policy
Haim Watzman Ha’aretz has been going ga-ga over the impending new left-wing party that will incorporate Meretz, a few old Labor hands, and some literary figures who have long acted as the collective conscience of the Israeli left. The newspaper also devoted several pages of its Friday opinion supplement to the age-old question of whither [...]
Tags: Israeli left·Israeli politics·Labor Party·Meretz·social democracy·Tzipi Livni
Barak Speaks–Does He Have Anything To Say?
August 15th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Politics and Policy
Haim Watzman “Ehud Barak will Talk More to the Media,” says the headline in today’s Ha’aretz (Hebrew edition). It’s a mark of the sad state of Israeli politics that it’s worth a headline when the leader of what ought to be the country’s progressive camp decides to talk to the press. It’s hard to believe [...]
Tags: Ehud Barak·Israel·Labor Party

