It's a moot point whether or not Meretz should be regarded as a party of historic importance within Israeli history. Though it was ostensibly founded in 1992 towards the election held in June of that year, the party really came into being as the Ratz movement, established by former Education Minister Shulamit Aloni, almost 50 years ago, and it is this seniority that provides the party with its historical credentials.
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It is worthwhile taking a few moments to look at it in greater detail. It suffers from the Mapam Syndrome. Mapam, a Hebrew acronym for Mifleget HaPoalim HaMeuhedet (the United Workers Party), was one of the fundamental pillars upon which Meretz was built in 1992, while some of the key figures most associated with Meretz throughout its history, originally started out in the Zionist-socialist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair (Young Guard) and the Mapam party itself. Like Mapam, which had a tremendous impact on the pre-state Yishuv and later on the nascent Jewish polity, Meretz too was a party that exerted a profound influence – and is now fading away, though its impact will be felt for some time to come.
The origins of Meretz, as the party has come to be known in recent years, hail back to some point in the first Intifada (Palestinian uprising) that began in late 1987. A newspaper report appearing in the Hadashot daily in May 1989 tells of the arrest of demonstrators from an elitist left-wing movement that arose during the Intifada, named the "21st Year" (an allusion to the results of the 1967 Six-Day War).
They held a procession in Qalqilya, "threw stones at IDF vehicles... disturbed the soldiers from carrying out their activity and incited the local population in Qalqiliya to rebel. Among those detained was Zehava Gal-On, the director of the B'Tselem human rights organization, along with a group of theater actors and students", so the report claimed.
On occasions, Ratz was to turn into the parliamentary political front for anti-Israeli movements. Thanks to it, Israel became more and more tolerant of acts of cooperation with various forces operating against the state.
Only a week ago, an extremely important article was published in this newspaper by Hanan Greenwood, revealing the handbook of radical left-wing organizations that are essentially involved in acts of espionage against the IDF and the security forces in Judea and Samaria. Under the veneer of its public respectability, Meretz granted legitimacy for the overall activity of these organizations: B'Tselem (which was established at the beginning of the Intifada in 1988), Shovrim Shtika (Breaking the Silence), Yesh Din, Zochrot (Remembering) and other similar organizations that are routinely funded by various foreign organizations.
When the victory of the Labor Party headed by Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, symbolized a counterbalance to the previous 1977 upset or right-wing political shift, Meretz was an out-and-out left-wing political party, working for peace and human rights. But it was also something of a national-Zionist party that could count among its leadership such outright hawks as Ran Cohen and Avshalom "Abu" Vilan.
Other staunch security-minded hawks as Motti Ashkenazi and the late Professor Shuka Porat, also supported the party. Outstanding figures such as Yair Tsaban and Amnon Rubinstein assumed senior ministerial positions in government on behalf of Meretz.
In the 30 years that have elapsed nothing remains of this rich heritage. Precisely when it was presented once again with the opportunity of savoring the taste of government, Meretz turned into a party devoid of its roots, opting for an uncompromising post-Zionist approach.
It is genuinely hard to believe that such political and military "stars" as Yair Golan, Yossi Beilin, and Ehud Barak have all passed through this party, as people pass through a train station. This is proof of the fact that the ideological content of abandoning Zionism is what has led to the party's road to ruin over the years, rather than a lack of ready talent.
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