Yachad



         


This is an article about the Israeli political party. For the Jewish homosexuals association in Germany see: YACHAD Germany.

Yachad is an Israeli dovish social democratic left wing party. The name "Yachad" יח"ד which literally means Together, is also an abbreviation of "Social Democratic Israel" in Hebrew.

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History

Yachad was established by the merging of Meretz with Yossi Beilin's SHAHAR שח"ר movement and Roman Bronfman's "The Democratic Choice" party. It was established in order to unite and resucitate the Israeli Zionist peace camp, which was defeated in the 2003 elections (dropping from 54 Knesset members in 1992 to 24 in 2003) following the al-Aqsa Intifada. The party's purpose was to unite a variety of dovish Zionist movements with the dovish wing of the Israeli Labor Party. However, these efforts have so far been unsuccessful as except for the original Meretz, Shahar and MK Roman Bronfman no other movement has joind the new party. Only 20,000 people have registered as members of the new party (half the number of people who were listed as members in the 1999 Meretz primaries).

In March 2004, Yossi Beilin was elected over Ran Cohen as the first chairman of Yachad for a two-year term.

The original name was "Yaad", which means "goal" in Hebrew, but was replaced because the meaning of Yaad in Russian is poison.

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Ideology

Yachad defines itself as a left wing social democratic party.

Yahad sees itself as the political representative of the Israeli Peace movement. It currently does not have a written ideological platform but it does emphasise the following principles:

Less emphasised issue are:

Issues that are still under debate in Yachad:

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Current status and politics

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Reputation and Public Image

As stated above, Yachad has shrunk significantly from the large Meretz party of 1999. Yachad's attempt to draw Israeli Labor Party dovish voters and Knesset members has failed.

On March 16, 2004, Yossi Beilin was elected to lead Yachad. Following Beilin's victory, many Yahad activists announced that they are removing their support from the party. Some of that reasons were that:

  1. Beilin wasn't a true socialist. Although he defines himself as social-liberal he is actually a moderate capitalist.
  2. Beilin's only focuses was on negotiation with the Palestinians, neglecting other issues.
  3. Beilin is hated by a majority of the Israel public, mainly by Sepharadim and residents of the periphery towns. This is partly because of the perception that he holds 'too pro-Palestinian' opinions, partly because of his elitist image and mainly because of the failure of the Oslo process, with which Beilin is closely associated.
  4. Beilin is perceived to be funded by foreign European bodies, thus being more loyal to the interests of his funders rather to the interests of Israel.
  5. Beilin's Geneva Accord seemed to be an unfair attempt to place Ran Cohen in the shadow.
  6. The loss of Ran Cohen to Beilin appears by some to be evidence of the anti-Sepharadic racism in Yahad. Ran Cohen, who immigrated to Israel from Iraq, is the only non-Ashkenazi to have reached a senior position in Meretz\Yachad.

However, the radical faction of Meretz expressed support in Beilin because:

  1. It was claimed that he could attract voters from Hadash and other small radical left parties.
  2. Beilin's supporters showed polls that claim to prove that Beilin will bring more voters than Cohen.
  3. Beilin is the father of the Oslo peace process and the Geneva Accords.
  4. Beilin would give Yachad a clear dovish stand, which will distinguish it from the Israeli Labor Party and Shinui.

Yachad's approach toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has grown radical since its establishment. Yachad abandoned the "securitist" approach of its predeccessor Meretz and focused at criticism on the conduct of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Defence Forces and the government of Israel. This criticism has failed to find much support in Israeli public opinion, which continues to be dominated by the desire for security and haunted by Palestinian terror attacks.

Yachad is torn in whether to support Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. It is also criticized in neglecting the social issues which Meretz raised as its flag.

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Knesset members

Current Knesset members (16th assembly):

  1. Yossi Sarid
  2. Haim Oron
  3. Ran Cohen
  4. Zehava Galon
  5. Roman Bronfman.
  6. Avshalom Vilan
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See also

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