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March 9th, 2021 
Awake Goy Merav Michaeli, the new head of the Labor Party in Israel, has instilled hope in liberal Zionists of a center-left comeback in the election that is two weeks away. The Labor party polls at six or seven seats, and if left-Zionist Meretz also passes the threshold, that would mean 11 Zionist seats on the center-left.
J Street is touting Michaeli’s statement that the center-left must replace “Netanyahuism” in Israeli politics. “Israeli feminist trying to save liberal Zionism” is the headline on a flattering profile of Michaeli by Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times.
A former journalist, Michaeli is in a firm liberal Zionist tradition. She regards Israel as the Jewish homeland, and wants to revive the “two-state solution,” and imagines an anti-Netanyahu governing coalition that could conceivably include rightwing Jewish hardliners Gideon Sa’ar and Naftali Bennett– as well as the anti-Zionist Palestinian parties.
Michaeli spoke to Americans for Peace Now in late February. And here are some of her views on the International Criminal Court and on the Palestinian future.
Asked about the International Criminal Court decision of February that it has jurisdiction to investigate Israeli war crimes in Palestine, Michaeli said:
Labor’s response on the ICC decision was, it’s a very problematic decision. It is a very, very problematic decision. And the most important thing for me is that does not promote peace in any way. It does not promote a solution for the two state solution. It escalates the conflict…. You are aware of how committed I am to finding a solution for that [Israeli-Palestinian conflict]. There is never a way to achieve peace through a court dispute, a legal dispute.
Michaeli’s flat opposition to the ICC is a big reason why US liberal Zionists cannot support the ICC decision; these forces take their script about Israel’s future from Jewish Israelis whom they regard as idealistic.
Michaeli said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was like a divorce proceeding, and one of her “most moving achievements” in eight years in the parliament was passing a law that allows couples to bypass the rabbinical and family affairs courts and resolve a divorce through the “alternative dispute resolution” process, involving mediation. She said that more than half of families now choose this route to resolve their issues.
“Which goes to show you can reach agreement even when there is horrible, horrible, horrible bad blood between parents, between people, between couples. This is the way to work it out to resolve the conflict and the dispute, not to go and escalate it in whatever court.”
(The divorce metaphor is one that the late writer Amos Oz also used for Israelis and Palestinians. I am sure that many Palestinians would reject the idea, because it suggests some equity when there is none.)
As for the two-state solution, Michaeli said it is not an issue for Israeli voters in the election campaign, but she brings it up at her campaign appearances nonetheless as part of her broad “fight for equality.”
“I don’t know how it will come back, but what I do know is that the Israeli Palestinian conflict is a lynchpin… In terms of Israeli interests, in terms of Israel’s security and sustainability, there needs to be a solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. And I don’t know how and when it will come back, but it certainly will come back…
“What I can promise you is that even though this is completely not on the agenda for this election, I for one make sure to speak about it everywhere and constantly. Because I think it’s important that Israelis realize, that… clearly it’s not one of the pressing things for the moment… [because of the COVID-19 crisis]. But we must not forget that [COVID] does not make the Israeli Palestinian conflict disappear. it just postpones a little bit the pressing need to deal with it.”
She said Joe Biden could also make the conflict more pressing for Israelis. (Fat chance.)
A former journalist, Michaeli said her goal is to make Labor a “ruling party for the center left camp in Israel.” As matters stand, there is one-party rule, Likud, and that has created a “dire” situation for Israeli democracy.
Labor voters will have to come home, she said. Six years ago the center-left reached 29 seats, with Zionist Camp (Herzog/Livni) and Meretz combined, Michaeli said. But the center-left voters are demoralized about hopes for change, and they give their votes to the center and right, and now consider voting for centrist Yair Lapid, or hard rightwingers Saar and Bennett.
Home means a Zionist peace camp, Michaeli said.
“What we have to do is make [voters] realize that the rational thing to do and the emotional thing too is to come home to those who will represent them…. to build back the peace camp… and really to turn Israel back on the path to the Zionist vision which we want it to be, a home for the Jewish people with equality for all and with a just and sustainable society.”
Polling suggests that even if Labor does well, it will be subordinate to center/rightwing forces, including Yair Lapid.
The discussion between Michaeli and Americans for Peace Now reinforces a trend: liberal Zionists are incapable of acknowledging the apartheid charges that are mounting against Israel. Apartheid is outside the frame of the mainstream Israeli discussion; so it went unmentioned in this podcast.
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