Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich harshly criticized her party chairman, MK Itzhak Herzog, who offered a political strategy of disengagement from the Palestinians. Herzog discussed the idea with French Minister Francois Hollande, and Yachimovich said on Sunday that she had never heard the idea before and that learning about a swift change in your party’s direction should, perhaps, be discussed first with party members. She accused Herzog of winking at the right, and suggested he is breaking with the party’s cherished values regarding the two states solution.
Speaking to Israeli Radio Sunday morning, the former Labor chairman Yachimovich argued that the recent wave of terror is further incentive to forging a courageous political initiative to renew the negotiations with Mahmoud Abbas, who could very well be the last pragmatist Palestinian leader. She did not refer to the Abbas age factor—he is 80—nor suggested what Israel might do once the last Palestinian pragmatist inevitably retires from office.
In his meeting with President Hollande on Shabbat, Herzog presented his disengagement plan, saying he is “a big fan of the two-state vision, but we must be realistic. It cannot come true at this time. The hatred and incitement on the Palestinian side are too great, and the animosity between the two nations and the inadequacy of the current leaders [on both sides] prevent it.”
Incidentally, as Ha’aretz pointed out Sunday, back in 2012, as Labor Party Chairman, Yachimovich did precisely the same thing in a meeting with President Hollande, proposing conditions for a Palestinian state which were very similar to Netanyahu’s. She, too, demanded recognition of Israel as a democratic, Jewish state; territorial swaps to keep the settlement blocks intact; and negotiations without preconditions, meaning without the requirement for a settlements construction freeze.
Yachimovich has now sharply criticized Herzog several times over the past few days for his conduct vis–à–vis the Netanyahu government. For one thing, Herzog has been very generous with the Netanyahu coalition, approving vote offsetting deals, whereby a coalition member with extracurricular time needs contracts with an opposition member who promises to abstain should a vote come up, thus maintaining the balance in the House. MK Yachimovich has objected to this common parliamentary gesture, saying that’s not the way for a fighting opposition to behave.