Israel After Begin

12. Better Late than Never: Democratization in the Labor Party

C H A P T E R T W E L V E Better Late than Never: Democratization in the Labor Party Myron J. Aronoff ‫״‬ The nature of the nominating procedure deter­ mines the nature of the party; he who can make nominations is the owner of the party.‫״‬ E.E. Schattsneider1 This essay focuses on the selection of the Labor party candidates for the elections for the Twelfth Knesset. The analysis of the changes in the nominations process is the key to evaluating the extent to which Labor is undergoing internal democratization. From the rise of Labor in the early 1920s and the establishment of its hegemony in thezyxwvutsrqponmlk yishuv (the Jewish community in pre­independence Palestine), through almost three decades of its dominance of the political system of the sovereign state, oligarchic control of the nominations process was a key characteristic of Labor.2 1 have argued that the breakdown in respon­ siveness of the party, which derived in part from this process and which led to a lack of genuine representation of important constituencies on party institutions and the party's Knesset faction, was one of the zyxwvutsr *This essay was written while I was resident director of the Rutgers Junior Year in Israel program at Haifa University during the academic year 1987­88.1 am grateful to Avraham Brichta for his useful comments on an early draft of this essay. I wish to thank Knesset Members Uzi Baram, Mordecai Gur, and Ora Namir, and former KM Yehuda Hashai for granting me interviews. 257 Myron J. Aronoff 258 major factors that contributed to Labor's loss of power in 1977.1 have also suggested that the failure to make the necessary reforms, which such as analysis would have revealed, contributed to the defeat of the party in the 1981 elections.3 Credit for the major impetus for democratization of the party must be given to Uzi Baram, the party secretary­general. The election of the former secretary of the Jerusalem district in a narrow margin (384­382) over Micha Harish on October 30, 1984, paved the way for the reforms in Labor. However, the ground had been laid by the election of Chaim Bar­Lev in 1981 as party Secretary­General over his rival for the post, Eliahu Spieser, secretary of the Tel Aviv district. Speiser follows the tradition of his predecessors, the bosses of the Tel Avivzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcb gush.4 His elec­ tion would have resulted in the continuation of oligarchic domination of the traditional power centers. Baram, son of the late former labor minister, Moshe Baram, had actively pushed for greater internal party democracy since his days as a student activist. He based his campaign for party secretary­general on the platform of democratization. He wrote to each member of the central committee arguing the case for the importance of changes in the nominations process. Baram traveled extensively to the branches campaigning for reform. Immediately after his election he met with the ranking party leaders, Cabinet Members Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Yitzhak Navon, Moshe Shahal, and Gad Yacobi, and Secretary­ General of the Histadrut Yisrael Kesar to gain their support for his plans. Although Baram met considerable resistance along the way, and on at least one occasion actually resigned his post when it appeared that some of his demands for reform would not be accepted, he ultimately mobilized sufficient support to carry the day. Major opposition to the reforms came from the settlement (kibbutz and moshav) movements, which feared they would lose representation through the proposed reforms. They ultimately agreed to accept change, but insisted that they chose their own candidates (which they were allowed to do as distinct units like the urban districts); they demanded guaranteed positions on the list (which they did not receive). A key supporter of reform was Professor David Liba'i, chairman of the Preparation Committee, which is responsible for setting the agenda of the national party conference.5 However, the chairman of the sub­ committee of the Standing Committee responsible for formulating the changes in the nominations process was chaired by Yeheskiel Zakai, a representative of a settlement movement and a member of the camp of Yitzhak Rabin, who opposed the reforms.6 259 yxwvutsrp Better Late Than Never In a meeting attended by Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Uzi Baram, Yeheskiel Zakai, and Yisrael Kesar, the latter argued that the party leader (Peres), the secretary­general of the...