Hilik (Yehiel) Bar is a Member of Knesset for the Israel Labor Party/Zionist Union, Secretary General of the Labor Party, and Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. He is also chairman of the Knesset Caucus to Resolve the Israeli-Arab Conflict. In February 2014 Bar brought a delegation of 300 young Israelis to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Bar previously served as a member of the Jerusalem City Council on behalf of Mayor Nir Barkat’s “Yerushalayim Tazliach” (Jerusalem Will Succeed) party, holding the Tourism and Foreign Relations portfolios for the city.
[Photo of MK Bar and Ameinu President Kenneth Bob]
On March 27, Bar briefed Ameinu activists and supporters, and colleagues from the Workmen’s Circle. He laid out his thoughts on the March 17 Israeli Knesset election and his vision for where his party and the country should go moving forward.
1. Ameinu: With the election providing the Zionist Union, the joint list of the Labor Party and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party, with 24 seats and PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud with 30 seats and the first chance to form a new government, how do you see the election for the Labor Party and the Israeli Left in general?
Hilik Bar: We look at the election in two very different ways – one traumatic and one hopeful.
Notwithstanding the fact that the Likud, and Netanyahu as Prime Minister, were very unpopular throughout the campaign, they won the most seats and will now unfortunately create a new government of the Right. We understand that our campaign wasn’t perfect and made mistakes. We focused too much on Netanyahu as an individual, did not give our ideas for ending the conflict with the Palestinians enough attention so the voters did not have a clear alternative to the Likud message and failed to aggressively convince voters from the Center of the importance of having Zionist Union as the largest party in the Knesset.
Netanyahu also worked hard in the final weeks of the campaign to stoke fear in the electorate, what we experienced as his “Gevalt Campaign.”
At the same time, the Left made great progress even though our leader Isaac Herzog will not now become Prime Minister. The Left-Center block grew in this election to 24 seats, the largest number since 1999. And in the campaign we helped reignite the fire in the Zionist Union activists with a huge new young leadership group. Evidence of the appeal we have with young Israelis can be seen in the way we decisively defeated the Right with University students, as well as in polls of High School kids. We also gained two seats from Russian voters for the first time so we are making inroads in this community as well. Ultimately, while we are disappointed in the result, the future looks bright.
2. Ameinu: Looking towards these future elections, how can the Labor Party and Zionist Union do better with voters from the Israeli periphery, particularly those from Mizrahi backgrounds?
Hilik Bar: We have to accept that despite serious efforts in the periphery communities, we were not successful in overcoming both Netanyahu’s Gevalt campaign and a longstanding habit in these areas of voting for Likud. For me this is very personal since my father is a Moroccan supporter of Labor and I grew up in the toughest area of Safed. So I know the periphery.
We are committed to doing the hard thinking that will be necessary to win over these communities. But immediately, it is clear that we need to focus our campaign on meeting two key challenges and waving two crucial flags at the same time.
We are a social democratic party and are the ones who can offer poor and middle class Israelis the economic justice they desperately need. We are party that has a record of accomplishment on social issues. We care about economic opportunity for the poor and the ability of middle class Israelis to find affordable housing – for all, including the periphery. Netanyahu only offers Israelis a form of rough capitalism, 31% of children in poverty and a growing income gap between rich and poor.
But we can’t shy away from clearly waving the flag of peace and of the Two State Solution. We just didn’t do this strongly enough in this past election. We have keep reminding the voters that the current security situation offered by Netanyahu and the Right includes Iranian threats, terrorism in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, rockets and terror tunnels from Gaza and growing power for Hezbollah, Hamas, Isis and Al Qaeda.
We need to be sure that Israeli voters understand that the Left have always been the champions of security and be honest that if we don’t do everything we can to reach a peaceful Two State Solution with the Palestinians there are only two options and both of them will mean the end of the Zionist dream. Without a Two State Solution there will be only one state from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, and Israel will either preserve our democracy and cease being a Jewish state, or will institute an apartheid system to control a Palestinian majority. This is reality and so, coupled with a strong defense of our record on security, we need to give Israeli voters a true choice of what destiny they desire for our country and for Zionism. I’m confident that this will be a winning strategy in the periphery as well as the center. And the link between our two flags is a point that my colleague MK Stav Shaffir has repeatedly stressed — strong security also requires a healthy society so we have what it takes to succeed on both fronts.
3. Ameinu: Would the Zionist Union consider joining a government of national unity with Likud and is there anything positive one can look forward from Netanyahu-led nationalist-ultra orthodox government?
Hilik Bar: We have no interest in joining with Netanyahu in a unity government. While national unity is valuable in principle, the Labor Party/Zionist Union will not a be a prop in a government that has no interest in addressing the significant challenges Israel faces both in pursuing peace and addressing the economic needs of our citizens. This is an absolute nonstarter.
We won’t join a government of the Right as junior partners no matter what we are offered. And a Netanyahu government will never do what is needed to reach peace or address our citizens’ deep economic and social needs. The one hope that I have is that if MK Kahlon is able to obtain sufficient power in the new government, he may be able to force through some valuable, if modest, reforms related to housing and potentially banking. This will not be easy, but if he can do it then some good can be done.
4. Ameinu: What should we look for from Labor/Zionist Union as it serves as the Knesset Opposition?
Hilik Bar: Even in opposition, Labor/Zionist Union will take the lead in advocating both for economic justice and a renewed and energized push for peace with the Palestinians. One key tool will be the Caucus for the Resolution of the Israeli-Arab Conflict. We will not hide the reality that faces Israel and the need to move forward to end the conflict with our neighbors. We will be limited by our position in the opposition, but we will be tireless in pushing forward with this agenda.
And as we work on this dual agenda, I hope that the U.S. Jewish community will do its part by supporting our mutual agenda. And one area where this can be done is by voting for the Hatikvah Slate so U.S. Jews will have a strong voice in the Zionist world and in Israel. Crucial decisions on policy and resources are made at the World Zionist Organization, and we hope our partners in the Diaspora will have a strong showing and a dramatic impact at the World Zionist Congress.
[Note, to see Hilik in action, his “Barn Burner” of a speech at the J Street Conference can be viewed on the Ameinu website: https://ameinu.wpengine.com/blog/ameinu-video/hilik-bar-at-jstreet-conference/ Also check out Hilik’s OpEd during the campaign in the NY Jewish Week, https://ameinu.wpengine.com/blog/partners-ground/hilik-bar-time-to-recognize-the-palestinian-state/]
