Melville House Books

Amos Oz stares into the future of Israeli politics

Anyone who thinks that writers never get their hands dirty should read this report on Haaretz: Celebrated Israeli author Amoz Oz has joined 30 leading intellectuals to found a new leftist party in Israel. It’s necessary, he told a press conference, because “the Labor Party has finished its historic role, it isn’t putting forward a national agenda and it joins any coalition.” This last points to what is thought to be the straw that broke the camels back: “the refusal by Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak to commit to not joining a coalition headed by Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu.” The party will be modelled on and allied to left-wing party Meretz, and the founders’ hope is that it will grow to a sizable bloc in the legislature, consisting of ex-Labor members, Meretz members, environmentalists, Reform Jews and Arabs. The party has yet to name itself, nor have they chosen a leader yet: it’s likely that we’ll have to wait till their founding meeting on December 5th to find out which of its highbrow members plan to abandon their current occupations to run for the Knesset. Labor Minister Matan Vilnai accused potential supporters of “following trends” — is he a little worried, perhaps?