Sunday, evening, Art Club, a kind of shelter in south Tel Aviv.
About 100 people are gathering for the candidate panel of the Meretz party for the primaries to be held next week.
24 male and female candidates will compete for 5-4 realistic places on the list, and for the hearts of approximately 19,000 voters, who will also determine the identity of the chairman: Zehava Galon, who symbolizes the return of a crown to its former glory, or Yair Golan, who wants to bring new audiences to the party.
Zahva Galon, photo: Gideon Markovich
The officials know that the results of the vote are more dramatic than ever: if Meretz fails to pass the threshold, the entire center-left bloc may pay.
But in the Tel Aviv club the atmosphere is relatively relaxed.
A puppy wanders among the beer drinkers, and a veteran activist hands out flyers against Zehava Galon and Michal Rosin, who remarks to him: "It's not respectable."
Tonight's focus: the duel for the leadership of the party.
"The circumstances led me to a dramatic feeling that I must return," Galon tells the audience at the beginning of her speech.
"I'm coming back more experienced, with connections in the political system. It's not just that right after I announced my intention, Prime Minister Lapid and Benny Gantz invited me to a meeting," she emphasizes.
Golan, in a conversation with Israel Hayom, justifies his request to win the public's trust: "Zahva has already led the party in the past, and what it symbolizes is Meretz withdrawing, who focuses on an electorate that is very Tel Avivian in nature, and I think there is no future on this path."
This call has an echo, for example in the kibbutzim.
Prof. Michal Shamai of the Emek Guard explains to us that the kibbutzim are with Golan because he "is not afraid to say out loud that Meretz is a left-wing Zionist party. Yair visits the kibbutzim on the northern border and the surrounding area, he made a very clear statement against the conduct of agricultural reform."
On the other hand, former minister Ram Cohen, a veteran of Meretz and a former kibbutznik, is not convinced - and expresses his support for Zeba Galon.
"I don't like these sectoral divisions. I support Zeba because Meretz is in a leadership crisis, and we need leadership that has already proven itself."
The full article - tomorrow in Israel this week
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