This is Zehava Gal-On, leader of the left-wing Meretz party, speaking to students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, on Tuesday, December 18, 2012.
Meretz is a relatively small party, with three MKs in the current Knesset, which could—according to some polls—increase its size to five MKs.
Back in the early 1990s, when it had as many as 12 MKs, it caused a lot of damage, as the force behind the Oslo accords. But over the years, as many of its more charismatic leaders have been put to pasture, Meretz has shrunk and now represents the core of the Jewish left, and a few Arabs.
If they had it their way, they would close down the Judea and Samaria Jewish towns and villages and give those areas to the emerging Palestinian state, along with East Jerusalem. But they can’t. At last count, Israel’s right constitutes between 65 and 70 percent of the voters, and so far the left has not been able to present an alternative so attractive that it would change this math.
And so, today, Zehava Gal-On is not the enemy, because folks who support Jewish life in all of Eretz Israel will not vote for her.
The problem is that those same folks might vote for right-wing leaders who would end up applying Gal-On’s agenda. They will take the votes of residents of Efrat and Karnei Shomron and form a government that will make it difficult, if not impossible, for Jews to continue living in Efrat and Karnei Shomron.
It’s been done before, in Gaza’s Gush Katif. It wasn’t the left that destroyed Jewish life in the Gaza Strip. It was done with the votes of right-wing Israelis.
Zehava Gal-On is honest. She says up front what she would do with her vote, and so all you have to do is not vote for her.
Voltaire said: “Lord protect me from my friends, I can take care of my enemies.”
And you say Voltaire didn’t know about Bibi…