Sharon could face a mini-rebellion in his own party.
Despite the elation of Mitzna's campaign strate-
gists over the party's election list, the Labor leader
faces a similar problem. Most of the top people on
the list are supporters of the former party leader,
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. They could push Mitzna into
joining a coalition with Sharon on terms he would
rather reject, or even chip away at his leadership
within Labor.
And there is another problem with the Labor list:
The demotion of party doves could lead left-wing
voters, who had been drawn to Mitzna's clear-cut
positions about peace, to think again. Some might
shift their allegiance from Labor to Meretz, the left-
wing party.
But the bottom line is this: Even if Labor does
manage to recapture some of the center ground
from the Likud, Sharon is still the odds-on favorite
to retain the premiership in the elections. Though
there is still plenty of time until the vote, polls show
Likud winning a landslide victory.
As Labor's Shimon Peres, the doyen of Israeli
politicians, shrewdly points out, that means the elec-
tion is really about the kind of coalition that
emerges afterwards. That takes on added signifi-
cance given the hawkish nature of the Likud list,
Peres says. If Labor does well, it will be able to curb
the right-wingers in Likud; if not, Peres warns, they
may push Sharon into the arms of the far-right.
❑
Israeli Likud Party activists walk on the site of party primary voting in Tel Aviv Dec. 8. A vote of the central
committee of the Likud Party to decide the party list for national elections on Jan. 28 was postponed by several
hours on Sunday following a court ruling.
In The Cold
With leaders focused on security, more Israelis slip below the poverty line.
JESSICA STEINBERG
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
n rainy winter days, Katya. sits with her
bulging shopping cart at a bus stop in
Rechavia, one of Jerusalem's older, more
genteel neighborhoods.
The 54-year-old was once a music teacher, but a
prolonged divorce and depression cost Katya her job,
and now she is homeless on the streets of Jerusalem.
"I don't mind it," she said, bundled up in several
sweaters and coats. "No one bothers me, and peo-
ple usually give me any leftover food they have in
their bag."
It's still unusual to see a homeless person sitting at
a Jerusalem bus stop, but it may not be unusual for
long. According to recently released statistics on
poverty, Katya is one of 1.2 million Israelis, or near-
ly 20 percent of the population, living below the
poverty line. The figure has increased by almost 1
percent from the previous year. The poverty level for
an Israeli family of four is $934 per month.
The release of the poverty statistics coincided with
the start of Israel's election campaign, and some par-
ties are making social equality a prominent issue in
their platforms.
0!-, the left, new Labor Parry leader Amram
Mitzna, for example, says Israel must disengage from
the Palestinians — withdrawing unilaterally from
the West Bank and Gaza Strip, if need be — in
order to concentrate on socioeconomic and other
domestic issues. On the right, when Binyamin
Netanyahu mounted his recent challenge to unseat
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as head of the Likud
Party, he began by trumpeting his ability to resusci-
tate Israel's economy.
The platform of Yisrael Acheret, or A Different
Israel — which is fighting a legal battle to register as a
new party — ignores ideological disputes over policy
toward the Palestinians to focus exclusively on Israel's
internal needs. And on Monday, another new party
— the Protest Movement, which hopes to unite all
social protest groups
announced its formation
under the slogan "Israel wants equality of chances."
Yet while politicians cite the figures and results of
the recent poverty report, few seem to have any con-
crete suggestions or solutions to address Israel's
growing socioeconomic gap, beyond general state-
ments that Israel should spend less on settlements or
yeshivot and more on development towns.
Great Debate
At a recent press conference, Mitzna spoke about the
link between the current economic recession and
Israel's social problems. "We have to deal with
domestic issues and divert all our resources into
domestic problems," he said.
• The left-wing Meretz Party also is focusing on
what Meretz legislator Ran Cohen calls a "socioeco-
nomic disaster that has reached monstrous propor-
tions." When 58 percent of Israeli citizens, including
the middle class and business people, have been
harmed by the current recession, it creates an aware-
ness that change is necessary, Cohen added.
Yet more often than not, Israel's growing income
gap and widening circle of poverty remains an issue
for the opinion columns, but low on the govern-
ment's to-do list when Palestinian terror attacks are
continuing.
Reacting to the recent statistics, the New Israel Fund
called for a focus on economic equality in the current
election campaign, and for immediate government
action. "Israel has been understandably focused on its
security situation," the NIF's president, Peter Edelman,
said in a recent statement. "However, the long-term
strength of the country also depends on its economic
health."
The government must develop an emergency eco-
nomic program to address the gap between rich and
poor, reduce unemployment and restore the econo-
my's vibrancy, Edelman said.
IN THE COLD on page 22
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12/13
2002
21.