The Meretz primary elections will be held on Monday.
The tension can be cut with a knife: Will Zehava Galon remain in first place (there is no one competing against her)? Will Ilan Galon remain in second place or drop to third place? Will Uri Zaki manage to take sixth place, or will Musi Raz/Abu Villan beat him?
Say what you will about the Jewish Home, but the primaries there were a celebration. 20,000 new members in two weeks, many "stars" of the right jumped in and brought with them new ideas and a lot of energy.
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the political map, the ideological left party continues to run its closed members' club. The members on the bus closed the doors long ago and are not letting anyone new on board.
Election after election, the same list of (deserving, worthy) candidates: Abu Vilan, Musi Raz, Ilan Gilon, Isawi Frij, Zehava Galon. Along the way, they go through a long and exhausting process, performing, choosing a conference, arguing, all to change one position forward, one back.
There was one 'star' who wanted to run this time. Retired Major General Eyal Ben-Reuven. He was probably sure that his friends would die of excitement at the fact that a security expert like him was putting his prestige on Meretz.
The members were really excited, but Ben Reuven will not be running on Monday. Someone must have explained to him that, with all due respect, 1,000 members of the conference are committed to other people. He may have caught a conversation with another retired 'star'. Maj. Gen. Shaul Arieli, a rabbi who is an expert on the political process, ran as one person and discovered that he was not even close to the Knesset.
A quick glance at the Labor Party's list of candidates reveals what the Meretz list could have looked like.
Merav Michaeli wanted to be in Meretz in 2009. She didn't get the support she wanted and went to Labor. Zuhair Bahloul, Yariv Oppenheimer, Stav Shafir and many other Labor candidates are potential Meretz candidates. Some of them even considered this option, until it was explained to them nicely that the Labor primaries, with all their shortcomings, are an afternoon picnic compared to the ability to win elections at the Meretz convention.
In fact, the Meretz conference is a kind of sophisticated ballot box counting. The number of free voters is small. It almost doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. To be elected to the Meretz conference without having done a count first, without the members of "your" count choosing the conference members you wanted, without that – it's almost impossible to get in.
Yossi Beilin and Yael Dayan only entered the party thanks to Shirin. Nitzan Horowitz also entered that way. His resignation is also related to the way elections are held in Meretz. Horowitz did not strengthen his commander well enough, as a result, he did not have enough conference members 'of his own'.
If there were enough free voters, he would be high on the list; in their absence, it would be better for him to resign.
In the 2009 elections, the party's chairman, Haim Oron, tried to break the system, to bring in new people. The attempt was excellent and thanks to it, Oron was able to recruit people like Talia Sasson and others, only he failed. Meretz received only 3 seats.
For the members of the closed club called Meretz, this is the ultimate proof that there is no need to bring new blood to the party. Why? The brand will do the work for us.
In the current elections, Meretz faces an existential threat. It is clear that the size of the Labor Party is a critical parameter in toppling Netanyahu's government. A significant gap in mandates between Labor and Likud would create legitimacy for Lieberman, Deri, and Kahlon to go with Herzog.
Even so, the polls currently give Meretz 5 or 6 seats, slightly above the threshold. A little more leakage to Herzog and the club members could find themselves really right and really, really out of the Knesset.
• The article was published in Haaretz.'
