In the elections to the 25th Knesset, it is better for the Labor parties and Meretz to run on a joint list, with each of them maintaining its uniqueness.
This is not only a remedy to jump over the blocking percentage hurdle (because I believe that on election day they will both succeed in overcoming it even if they run separately), but because there is no justification in principle for two parties with such a great common denominator to waste energy on each other instead of facing each other. In the face of those in Israeli society who do not believe in human equality, who have decided to come to terms with the reality of one state, from the Jordan to the sea, and whose expansion of human rights is a process they are terrified of.
This is a Zionist Social-Democratic list.
This is the uniqueness that characterizes Labor and Meretz compared to all the other parties in the Knesset.
This is not a hollow blue-and-white slogan, there is a future, but a way of life that must be fought for, and which will be very difficult to do separately.
I am sorry for Nitzan Horowitz's decision not to run for the Meretz presidency.
His decisions as party leader were very well-considered, in the context of Meretz joining the Lapid-Bennett government and in other contexts, and the fact that he did not stand for Jida Rinawi Zoabi's pitcher is not a sufficient reason to make him decide not to continue as chairman.
He quickly took over as Minister of Health and made the right decisions there as well, despite their complexity.
However, the distinct ideological nature of Meretz and the emphasis on value issues that are in dispute in Israeli society mean that its success does not depend on this or that personality.
It is true that there is always some importance to the question of who is in the driver's seat, but if in other parties this is the main question, in March this is a secondary question.
The party must hold, as planned, the primaries for its leadership and faction in the Knesset, in parallel with a similar process in the Labor Party, and allow Merav Michaeli to head the combined list.
In principle, and especially if it turns out that the polls tend to favor the next option, I would suggest considering establishing a democratic front with Yesh Atid led by Yair Lapid.
Such a front may be the largest faction in the Knesset and join, after the election, together with parties like Blue and White and Ra'am to form the next coalition.
A situation where Meretz is gaining votes in the Labor Party, the Labor Party is gaining votes in Meretz and there is a future trying to transfer voters from both to it, is the worst thing that could happen to a camp that wants to prevent Netanyahu from returning to the prime minister's throne.
In contrast, a triangular front could focus on bringing skeptical and pessimistic voices from the center-left to the ballot box, allowing blue and white to focus on the center-right voices.
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