Israeli Leftists Caught Between Despair and a Hard-Liner in Vote

Tuvia Metzer is the classic pro-peace Israeli leftist. Voting for the hard-line right wing is positively unthinkable for him. Yet when he deposits a ballot in Tuesday’s election for incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Barak, it will be only after weeks of agonizing inner debate.

“I will hold my heart and put ‘Barak,’ ” Metzer says.

Two days before Israel’s national election, many of Barak’s core supporters are facing the same dilemma. Battered by psychological trauma and a loss of faith triggered by Israel’s political and military crises, they cannot countenance a government under hawkish opposition leader Ariel Sharon--but Barak inspires little enthusiasm.

Polls consistently give an overwhelming lead to Sharon, the 72-year-old former army general who has said he will drive a much harder bargain in any negotiations with the Palestinians.

Metzer thought about not voting; he thought about casting a blank protest ballot. “In the end, I decided I had no choice,” the 53-year-old bank manager said Saturday night as he braved wind and rain to march in a peace rally. “But I am afraid my vote and that of my family will not be enough.”

The Jerusalem rally, staged by Peace Now, commemorated the 18th anniversary of the death of Emil Grenzweig, a peace activist killed when a right-wing militant hurled a bomb into a demonstration protesting Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, an operation masterminded by Sharon.

“I know a lot of people are disappointed with Barak, but it’s not like there’s an alternative,” said 19-year-old Adam Rubins, who will be voting for the first time Tuesday.

Rubins, who is working as a youth counselor for a year before he performs his mandatory military service, joined the torch-lighted peace march in a last-ditch effort to muster support for Barak. But everyone present knew that it would be an uphill battle.

Elsewhere Saturday, clashes between Israelis and Palestinians were reported in the West Bank city of Hebron and the Gaza Strip. The Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat vowed to step up its uprising after the Israeli election, regardless of who wins.

Among the many Israelis whose support Barak has lost, perhaps the most conflicted are voters from the left and the so-called peace camp--roughly half the country. Like Metzer, they enthusiastically endorsed Barak in his 1999 landslide election, but 20 months of political disarray and, more recently, frightening bloodshed have left them with many questions and doubts.

Their ambivalence underscores a wider national despair. Many are disillusioned not only with Barak but also with the entire process of negotiation and peace-seeking enshrined in the landmark 1993 Oslo accords, which have governed Israeli-Palestinian relations for so many years. The violence of the last four months has brought Palestinian hatred for Israelis into sharp focus, gutted efforts at coexistence and seemed to render years of work futile.

Metzer and others trace their disappointment with Barak almost to the beginning of his tenure. Barak failed, they say, to build the kind of political network he needed to shore up what would become difficult peace talks requiring significant Israeli concessions. He waited too long to enter into negotiations with Arafat, selfishly ignored the advice of party elders, disregarded the feelings of adversaries, then bungled Israel’s response to the current uprising.

Although the polls give Sharon a margin of victory of up to 21 points, there remains an unusually large percentage of undecideds. Pollsters say many who have been refusing to back Barak in surveys will on Tuesday “return home” and vote for him.

That is not likely to change the anticipated outcome, but it may influence the nature of Sharon’s mandate and his need to negotiate with the opposition.

Traditionally, turnout in Israeli elections is very high. Some analysts predict that this election--Israel’s first for a prime minister only--will draw fewer than usual voters.

“Of course I’m voting for Barak, but my disappointment and disillusion have only gotten deeper,” said Arie Azene, a leftist Jerusalem resident and successful painter who voted for Barak in 1999. “I don’t think I’m alone in this feeling. You can see the number of people who don’t know what to vote and an even larger number who don’t feel any emotional involvement at all.”

Azene sighed at the thought of what he called the euphoria of hopes and expectations that Barak’s election inspired, and the apathy and anger that now dominate the political debate and have driven voters, especially centrists, away from Barak in droves.

“In this time of history, we came to a crucial point, a main event, but the personalities are not up to the level of the event,” Azene said. “I’m voting for Barak again, but it’s a vote against Sharon, not for Barak.”

Barak acknowledges the crisis on the left that his policies and practices have caused. He claims to have “taken away the rosy glasses” through which the left saw the Palestinians and the prospects for settling decades of conflict with them. The new dose of realism is painful, he says.

“What is especially hard for the left to accept in what I uncovered is that the other side has a proud and demanding nationalism,” Barak told Haaretz Magazine in a long-ranging interview published this weekend.

“Even though I went very far, it is hard for the left,” Barak said. “The left is in a state of dissonance. Because I am coming closer than ever before to the realization of the dream, but at the same time I am posing a question about the essence of the dream.”

Leftists have been debating whether to vote for Barak or to make an even more radical statement. Some are so angry at Barak that they’ve decided not to vote for anyone.

“Sixty horses could not drag me to the voting booth to vote for Barak,” said Vicki Shira, a Tel Aviv criminologist who teaches at Hebrew University.

Shira, 53, voted for Barak in 1999 because of his promises to reduce unemployment and enhance the rights of the secular public. He failed on every score, she says, and then thought that he could rule in a vacuum, without a parliamentary majority.

“Barak did something awful on social issues, peace issues, on our relations with the Palestinians and with the Arab world,” said Shira, whose Egyptian-born family came to Israel in 1951. “In 1999, he represented some hope. Today, it’s a totally different situation which I cannot figure out how to react to.

“He pushed every one of us to the edges, and something broke. The Palestinians are much more extreme and see that their position of being aggressive and provocative is succeeding. The [Israeli] right wing no longer has problems and is triumphing. And the left is left collapsing. All the puzzle has changed. The cliches of before are not relevant.”

Shira was one of several dozen leftist academics and others who signed a huge ad in newspapers last week declaring “No to Sharon. No to Barak.”

The decision to boycott or cast a blank ballot is considered untenable by others on the left, who argue that to do either would only benefit Sharon.

“Use your head, not your guts,” columnist Yoel Marcus wrote last week in an impassioned plea to voters. “Advocating a blank ballot slip, so fashionable in leftist circles in Israel, is actually a contemptible posture that is threatening Israel’s very survival.

“Leftists, where the hell is your head?”