Will the Left lose the next election, as well? It could happen, because the Left is currently working on the argument that it doesn't have the demographic majority needed to win: Religious Israelis and settlers aren't on its side, for obvious reasons, and those same groups have higher birth rates, which will increase the gap in the future.
Anyone who espouses that claim doesn't understand the meaning of demography in its deepest essence and expresses an isolationist, condescending position. The assumption that the Right has a solid majority of votes, today and in the future, is incorrect. What we need is hard work to persuade voters, which is what a democratic struggle requires.
In the latest election, we saw that the two biggest parties received an equal number of votes. The Right won many votes in key cities like Ashdod, Ashkelon, Nazareth, Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Shmona, Dimona, Ofakim, and Sderot. Why give up on them? Stereotypical thinking about the population of these places only does harm. To attract right-wing voters, the left needs to try and understand the reasons why they voted the way they did. An understanding of the reasons will create a response mechanism fitted to these areas. Without the Left leaving its comfort zone and trying to go after right-wing strongholds, and launching a broad discourse with right-wing voters, there will be no change in the future, either.
It takes hard work out in the field to be elected, and not just a hasty initiative a few months before the election. A political fight isn't tweets, Facebook posts, or rallies of tens of thousands of people; that isn't enough to win. Serious political work takes place over the course of years and includes enlisting activists, setting people to work, holding rallies, building a program to raise funds, and putting together a framework for political activism, even going so far as to establish a shadow government. An entity like that must respond to the government's actions, especially by creating its own vision and agenda.
Anyone who wants change should take action, and sooner rather than later. The big protest against the nation-state law, for example, did not lead to the law's cancellation but created a shared experience and forged political connections between the tens of thousands of people who were there, who heard speeches that led them to hope for a different government. That should have translated into enormous political leverage, which didn't happen. A protest of tens of thousands is an example of political involvement, and it is a way to influence public opinion.
The Left is now left to its own introspection and wants to form closer ties with Israel's Arab citizens after distancing itself from them. That is a smart decision that won't be easy to implement. The idea that the Arabs are in the Left's pocket is an insult to Arab voters. The Left shouldn't appeal to them because there are "no partners" in Jewish voters, but rather because the Arab public deserves to be a partner in the government of the nation, and partnership takes place between equals.
The establishment of a democratic Jewish-Arab party that will attract middle-class and lower-class voters from the periphery is something that is lacking in the Israeli political landscape, and it could bring about change.
