Merav Michaeli's resignation announcement caused many eyes to tear up in the Labor Party and the center-left bloc. Not from sadness, but from joy and excitement.
After almost three years of single rule by a controversial politician, one identified with the far left of the political spectrum, the Labor Party can breathe a sigh of relief. In fact, almost none of Mapai's elders shed a tear over Michaeli's resignation. So did hundreds of thousands of former Labor voters who chose to vote for Yair Lapid or Benny Gantz in the last elections and never understood how the nightmare scenario in which Michaeli managed to take over the party that built the country, the same party that was once led by giants such as David Ben-Gurion, Levi Eshkol, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.
But the truth is that Michaeli managed to take over the Labor Party not because she was a public figure of stature. She did so after Amir Peretz left Labor shattered and bruised with zero seats in the polls, and remained the only senior politician in the party who wanted to lead it and save the historic brand, while major and well-known figures in the political system and the Israeli public chose to give up the pleasure. For this surely history should salute her. Indeed, Michaeli's victory breathed new life into the party, and in the 2021 elections, Labor under her leadership managed to do the unbelievable and win seven seats. Yaffe jokingly said at the time that the result of Labor in the 2021 elections proved that the "resurrection" does exist. But on the way there, the price was unbearable, especially after Michaeli managed to steer the party – which represented the mainstream of Israeli society – into the arms of the extreme left. Michaeli's support for the candidacy of Ibtisam Mara'ana, who in her anti-Zionist statements allegedly expressed support for Palestinian terrorist organizations and denigrated the memory of the Holocaust, illustrated this well.
But it was not only in the Labor Party that Michaeli succeeded in harming. With her own hands, and mainly because of her bloated ego, Michaeli was able to contribute significantly to the great victory of Netanyahu and the right in the 2022 elections. There was great concern that if Labor and Meretz did not unite, one or even both of them might find themselves outside the Knesset. However, while Meretz, headed by Zehava Galon, supported the move, Michaeli strongly opposed the unification, and even refused Yair Lapid's generous offer of Yesh Atid ministers. And the end was known: the Labor Party barely passed the electoral threshold in the 2022 elections and won only four seats, while Meretz remained outside the Knesset.
Merav Michaeli leaves a bitter mark on the Labor Party. During her term as party chairwoman, Michaeli succeeded in shaping the party in her image and image and turning it into a left-wing party in the broad sense of the word, between which and Meretz there is no difference
But the most ridiculous thing they will remember about Michaeli's tenure, even more so than the exclusive speech in the feminine language, which caused many distortions in the foreheads of Hebrew language experts, is the outrageous comparison she used to make between her and Yitzhak Rabin. Michaeli, who was known for controversial statements (such as her call in 2010 not to send children to the army), continued to lead a clear leftist line, which made no mention of Rabin's Labor Party, even though she repeatedly declared that she was his successor. In practice, Michaeli's conduct at the head of the Labor Party embodied everything Rabin the leader would have disliked.
In conclusion, Merav Michaeli leaves a bitter mark on the Labor Party. During her term as party chairwoman, Michaeli succeeded in shaping the party in its image and image and turning it into a left-wing party in the broad sense of the word, between which and Meretz there is no difference. In the era of Michaeli, who often liked to point out that she was Rabin's successor, there was no resemblance between Labor and the party the latter led back to power three decades ago, except perhaps for the letters "truth" on the ballot.
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