Amram Mitzna

The opinion polls of August forecast a splendid victory for Amram Mitzna, who seeks to head the Labor Party’s electoral list, in the primaries set for November 19. This Mayor of Haifa outstrips the two other candidates: Binyamin Ben Eliezer (the party head, who is also Defense Minister in the present national-unity government) and Knesset member (“MP”) Haim Ramon. Spurred on by other mayors, MP’s, party activists and business moguls, and with wall-to-wall support from Israel’s left, the new Knight goes forth to rescue Damsel Labor, crushed beneath the ruins of the Oslo Agreement.

The Labor Party has reached its nadir. In the next general elections, say the pundits, it is liable to plummet from its present position as the largest party (with 24 seats of the Knesset’s 120) to third place or even fourth. Its last primaries, held in September 2001, ended in a cloud of suspicion over forged votes and irregularities. For several months, Labor MP’s, even Ministers, have been quitting the Knesset one by one, giving the impression of a close-out sale. Among those resigning was former Interior Minister, Shlomo Ben Ami, a central figure in the Camp David talks of July 2000. Minister Ra’anan Cohen, the party’s former General Secretary, has left for a post in banking. Even Minister Dalia Itzik, usually willing to join any government at any price, prefers to become ambassador to Great Britain.

Labor’s participation in the national-unity government of Ariel Sharon, hence in his war against the Palestinian people, has eroded its credibility. The crack that opened in early October 2000, when the Palestinian uprising effectively put an end to the Oslo Agreement, has widened into a chasm. The American aegis, which once sheltered Labor’s visions of peace, has been transformed into White House support for Sharon’s bloody war. The Israeli left and its friends in the PA (Palestinian Authority), who in 1993 looked toward a new Middle East, have awakened to find themselves again in the nightmare of direct Occupation.

It is no wonder, then, that many see Amram Mitzna as the last great hope. He has announced his willingness to negotiate with any elected Palestinian leadership at any time – no pre-conditions. He has stated his readiness to divide Jerusalem. These positions have brought euphoria both to Israel’s left and the Arab leadership. Laborites opposing their party’s presence in Sharon’s government were quick to back him. Haim Ramon, who had been drawing from Labor’s left, lost overnight all chance of defeating Ben Eliezer: his support plunged from 65% to 10%. Most of the politicians who had championed him made the shift to Mitzna’s camp.

This is not to say, of course, that Mitzna can be certain of winning the primaries. Ben Eliezer still controls the party apparatus. He also enjoys the advantages of an incumbent Defense Minister. He gets wide support among most of the party’s branch offices, whose members will choose the list of candidates. Despite all this, however, Ben Eliezer does not fare well among the wider public. Party activists know how low his popularity is. If they come to believe that Mitzna can beat Sharon, they will doubtless shift allegiance to him. The opinion polls, for now, put a Sharon-led Likud ahead of a Mitzna-led Labor, but even farther ahead of a Labor led by Ben Eliezer.

Mitzna did not decide all by himself to leave his comfortable chair in Haifa City Hall and leap into the murky waters of national politics. Behind the decision stands a group of business people, attorneys and former generals, members of the wealthy elite that is close to Labor, who have long been seeking an alternative to the flagging party leadership. (They include industrialist Benny Ga’on and Dov Lautman, head of Delta Textiles.) More than anything, the Israeli bourgeoisie wants business. To this end, quiet and stability are needed. The business leaders, therefore, are ready to support appropriate candidates.

The moguls met with Mitzna just before he officially entered the race. A mere two months earlier, several of them had met with another star in the firmament of Israel’s left: Dr. Yossi Beilin, who announced that he would leave Labor and establish a social democratic party. Beilin even flirted with Yossi Sarid, head of Meretz, in a “Coalition for Peace.” (See Challenge # 72). These attempts did not take wing.

Unlike Beilin, Mitzna wants to revive Labor from within. He promises not just to restore the color to the party’s cheeks, and not just to repair the broken relations with the Arabs in Israel, but to bring back, as well, the disaffected: for example, Histadrut chief Amir Peretz, who split off in 1999, founding a party called One People (two Knesset seats).

Beilin was among the first to declare his support for the new candidate. He will not leave Labor, he said, if Mitzna wins the primaries.

Stalwart liberals too, Professor Ze’ev Sternhall of the Hebrew University for instance, back Mitzna: “As a result of his party’s subjection to Sharon’s command, Ben Eliezer has brought his friends to the lowest level… Enslavement to the Likud has turned him and the other [Labor] ministers to figures of no importance. Not one of them spread wings and showed an ounce of leadership-potential for the national arena… Nevertheless, when finally someone does appear with an alternative, and with a chance to overthrow Ben Eliezer, then we hear a new excuse: that the person elected to head the party has some kind of natural right to stand at the top of its electoral list.” (Ha’aretz August 30.)

Mitzna’s candidacy has also excited the American media. Lengthy interviews appeared at the end of August in Newsweek and The New York Times. The American interest goes back, in fact, to several months ago, when senior US officials inquired about his positions. According to Yediot Haifa (a local paper) on August 23, the US ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, has met with Mitzna in private at the latter’s office. With no advisors present, they talked (they said) about Mitzna’s positions, as well as his assessments concerning negotiations with the Palestinians. Mitzna also met with members of the US Congress on August 21.

Mitzna and the Palestinians

How did Mitzna gain the image of “Israel’s general with a conscience”? At the height of the Lebanon War in September 1982, soon after the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, Brigadier General Mitzna decided to resign from the army on the grounds that he had lost his faith in Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. Two days later, under pressure from Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan, he reversed his decision. The matter ended with his writing a letter of apology. The rift with Sharon has remained through the years.

Mitzna began his military career in the War of 1967. In a patriotic book by Shabtai Teveth called The Tanks of Tammuz, he figured as an officer-hero of legendary proportions. He took part in all the subsequent wars. Wounded several times, decorated, sent to the US for military studies, he advanced to the top of the army. A few months before the first Intifada broke out, he was given command of the central sector, i.e., the West Bank. He loyally did his job, keeping the lid on the popular uprising.

Mitzna’s declaration of readiness to divide Jerusalem and negotiate without preconditions does not necessarily signify a leftist position. He strongly supports, for example, the policy of pinpoint assassinations directed against Palestinian military leaders. He sees the conflict through the eyes of an army man: “I don’t feel guilt toward the Palestinians. Not at all. They brought their catastrophe on themselves. But on their way down they are dragging us with them.” (Interview with Nahum Barnea, Yediot Aharonot August 16.)

In March 1989 the Hebrew daily Hadashot compared Mitzna’s performance in the West Bank with that of his counterpart, General Itzchak Mordechay, in the Gaza Strip. Mitzna did not come out to the left of Mordechay (who later joined the Likud). From the start of the first Intifada in December 1987 until March 1989, 121 houses were demolished in the West Bank under Mitzna’s command, compared with 45 in Gaza under Mordechay’s. Mitzna deported 28 people, Mordechai 17. Under Mitzna 302 Palestinians were killed and 3252 wounded, compared to 100 killed and 1490 wounded under Mordechai. (Cited by Mazal Mu’alem in Ha’aretz August 15.)

Mitzna and the Arab population in Israel

The possibility that Mitzna might become Labor’s candidate for Prime Minister raises great expectations in the local Arab leadership. The Intifada of the Arabs in Israel, so wretchedly handled by the regime of Ehud Barak, opened a chasm between them and Labor. Barak lost the elections of 2001 because the Arabs, in revenge, did not turn out to vote. Yet now, like moths returning to the flame that will burn them, the local Arab leaders dream that Amram Mitzna will bring back the “golden era” of Yitzhak Rabin. (Rabin did not permit them in his government, to be sure, but he relied on them to keep the right wing from winning no-confidence votes). These leaders refuse to learn from the past; they continue to mouth the mantra of “the lesser evil” at a time when relations between the two peoples have degenerated utterly. Their support will be

crucial to Mitzna in his attempt to rise to the top: if he can bring Arabs back into Labor’s fold, this will make him extremely attractive to party workers.

MP Issam Mahoul of Hadash: “The important thing to note is that the candidacy of Mitzna can create a new horizon for both peoples… Although I differ with Mitzna on certain points, he amounts to a ray of light in the sea of death and tears that has formed in recent years.” (Yediot Haifa, August 23.)

Even MP Azmi Bishara, naughty boy of the Knesset, has departed from his customary sniping at Zionist leaders: “Despite the image of former general, Mitzna stands to the left of Beilin and is free of his excess cleverness … Mitzna represents today a new spirit, at a time when Israeli society is tired and in despair and needs such spirit.” (Ha’aretz August 19.)

Kamel Rayyan, a leader in the southern wing of the Islamic movement in Israel, seems to have forgotten the restricting order that General Mitzna issued him when he was heading the Bara Village Council. He too expressed a liking for Mitzna’s programs, “which might yank Israel’s wagon out of the mud.” (Ha’aretz August 19.)

Finally, actor Juliano Mar represents a new organization, Ta’ayush. He opens a private column with the words: “Mitzna is ready to divide Jerusalem and to talk with Arafat. In the present political circumstances, a statement like that is a spark in the gloom.” (Kolbo August 23.)

We already have, however, an example of what the Arab public may expect from the Haifa mayor. This week he appointed MP Yossi Katz as “Head of the Staff for the Arab Sector” in his election campaign. The Arab field workers of the Labor Party boiled with rage. Muhammad Khalili, a pillar of the party in Haifa, protested: “The appointment of Katz [instead of an Arab – H.L.] is yet another proof that we count merely as vote-producers where the Labor Party’s concerned.” (Kolbo August 23.)

Humpty Dumpty is out for good

What is the secret of Mitzna’s magic? Can a former general, who built a civilian career on military glory and business contacts, fulfill the hopes of the Israeli left for peace, equality and social justice? The left’s support shows less about Mitzna than it does about its own shortsightedness. It longs for a new Rabin, someone to restore the Oslo Agreement. But neither Mitzna nor the Labor Party will put Oslo back together again.

In July, before Mitzna declared his candidacy, Shimon Peres was asked about Yossi Beilin’s plan to resign from Labor and establish a social democratic party. A sly and experienced fox, Peres voiced a position that represents the Labor consensus : “For peace you need a majority. There will not be a majority without the center and part of the right. If they want to sing songs for peace, let them go to song fests. If we want to make peace, we shall have to build an edifice that will attract the center, even the right.” (Sima Kadmon in Yediot Aharonot, July 26).

Peres sees the depth of his party’s crisis. Labor staked its future on the success of the Oslo Accords. These are founded on the assumption that the Palestinian elite, in return for privilege and position, would be willing to serve as Israel’s proxy in the Territories. The elite was willing indeed, but the Palestinian people, who had gotten worse than nothing from Oslo (closure, unemployment and more Jewish settlers) rose up in a new Intifada, dragging the elite behind them. Soon militant groups took over, launching human bombs. Thus the basic premise of Oslo, upon which Labor staked its existence, has had a great fall.

To this we must add September 11, which changed the face of American diplomacy. No longer would the US tolerate the excuse that Arab leaders used to make: that they were under the “constraint” of their peoples. PA Chief Yasser Arafat had failed to do his job, decided US President George W. Bush, and he’d have to go.

Therefore, when the left bets on Mitzna, not only does it squander valuable time, but it paves the way for its next downfall. If he wins the Labor primaries, then what? Labor’s positions are tuned to the majority that “you can’t make peace without”. This reality is what led the party into Sharon’s coalition – and then into the cities of the West Bank. Mitzna, like Barak before him, and like the majority, is stuck with a notion that has proved to be a non-starter: the assumption that any alternative must be based on the military and economic superiority of Israel.

It is not the function of the left to adapt its positions to those of the existing majority, but rather to offer its own alternative, toward which the positions of the majority can change. The Israeli left must internalize the fact that it cannot aspire to peace and social justice as long as it hitches its star to Labor, hoping for a lift back to power. Its members should ask themselves: Do we want a policy of perpetual deterrence against the Arab world, or do we want a truly new Middle East, a region of free peoples, whose resources will be distributed on the twofold basis of equality and respect for mutual needs? n

Mitzna's Haifa, for example

Mitzna often speaks with pride of Haifa as a mixed city, where tolerance and co-existence reign. The reality is not quite so glorious. Haifa has indeed experienced a surge of development under Mitzna's baton, but this has been directed toward the Jewish population. Only a small portion of the Arab bourgeoisie has benefited from the huge investments that have poured into the city during the last nine years. The vast majority of Haifa's 30,000 Arab citizens (9% of its populace) suffer from neglect. In Wadi Nisnas, for example, the neighborhood where most of Haifa's remaining Arabs now live, hundreds today face eviction for the sake of new highways.

With the special budgets he receives as mayor of a mixed city, Mitzna conducts an aggressive marketing campaign in order to present Haifa as a city of equality and peace between Jews and Arabs. After condemning dozens of houses in Wadi Nisnas in order to widen a road, he has turned the area into a showcase of neighborhood art, replete with murals and sculptures, intending to persuade the Arabs that in him they have a leader who cares. Symbolic gestures aside, however, Mitzna has contributed no more than his predecessors to Arab development. Until this day, not a single apartment house has been built for Arabs in Wadi Nisnas, or anywhere else in Haifa. Most Arab youngsters must attend private high schools run by the churches because of a lack of Arab public schools.

There are many Arab houses in Haifa, left by the refugees of 1948. Some were sealed, others rented out to poor families, mostly Arab. These houses have remained an object of yearning for the refugees in Lebanon. The onset of Mitzna's rule (1993) coincided with that of the Oslo Accords, which Zionists interpreted as putting an end to refugee claims. Mitzna has carried out, therefore, a vast campaign of selling the refugees' homes to private developers. In the case of the rented homes, he has used the powers of building-condemnation and monetary incentives to get poor Arabs to leave. By cultivating the Arab upper class, he has carried out these measures in the German Colony and Wadi Salib, without tarnishing his image as a champion of co-existence.

Since 1993 Mitzna has devoted most of his energy to business ventures, making the city a millionaire's paradise, enriching it with spectacular projects some of which lie orphaned today. For the sake of his wealthy friends, he has cut bureaucratic red tape, multiplied opportunities for construction, and whipped the planning board into granting permits. The tie between politics and business has tightened to Gordian intricacy.

Among those Mitzna has advanced, none has won more awards in Haifa than entrepreneur Gad Ze'evi. Today Ze'evi is on trial, accused of shady dealings in the purchase of communications stock. Ze'evi is also an owner of Radio Haifa, where Mitzna takes an hour each week to talk with listeners. The senior manager of Ze'evi's businesses in Haifa is a man named Israel Savion. He also heads the city's Labor Party.

Although Mitzna has invested nothing in the Arab population, no serious opposition has arisen. Since his election, he has managed to preserve a wall-to-wall coalition, including the Arab parties. Recently he appointed a Hadash representative as the first Arab deputy mayor. Thus he feeds them the icing without the cake. The Arab leaders, for their part, like to mention the way he handled the uprising of October 2000, when he prevented clashes between police and demonstrators. Drawing on his rich experience from the first Intifada, Mitzna understood that a confrontation would only dispel the mirage of co-existence, tearing the delicate fabric on which he bases his rule. He has good reason indeed to cultivate the support of Haifa's Arabs so long as it's cheap. That support will be crucial as he seeks to ascend in the Labor Party. Yet those who applaud his murals on the ravaged houses in Wadi Nisnas may get him back again one day, placing environmental sculptures on demolished homes in Jenin.

talking politics

Hadas Lahav

Mitzna and the Palestinians

Mitzna and the Arab population in Israel

Humpty Dumpty is out for good

Mitzna's Haifa, for example