A team of Labor Party strategists convened last week in Secretary-General Raanan Cohen\'s, and discussed the bad news: The party\'s voters don\'t like them. A Ben Gurion University political-media researcher named Udi Lebel had been asked to conduct a study among some 300 Labor Party Central Committee members, asking them what they thought about the party - and the results were enough to disappoint even the most pessimistic Labor leaders.
As reported in Ha\'aretz today, Lebel said that the party members sense \"shame and de-legitimization when taking part in public discourse\" in light of the failures of Oslo and Camp David. Neither are they happy with the \"hollow\" plans being floated by party leaders such as Chaim Ramon, Shlomo Ben-Ami, and Shimon Peres. Lebel says that the members long to \"re-connect to \'Israeli-ism\' and to distance themselves from what is considered the \'extreme left\' and to be identified once again with patriotism and Zionism.\"
Possibly most surprising of all is that the Labor members are quite satisfied with Ariel Sharon, and even feel that he is more worthy than Burg or Ben-Eliezer of serving as head of their own party. Sharon is perceived as responsible, security-oriented, and an old-style Mapai-nik [Ben-Gurion\'s party]. Lebel said that the Laborites are \"stunned and disappointed\" when they see their leaders engaged in in-fighting over the past three months. Peres, too, has dropped in stature, and his speech in the United Nations, where he noted \"wide Israeli support\" for a Palestinian state, symbolized everything they wished to shake off - \"not Israeli, detached from the security situation, and consistent with the positions that lost the party the public\'s trust.\"
As reported in Ha\'aretz today, Lebel said that the party members sense \"shame and de-legitimization when taking part in public discourse\" in light of the failures of Oslo and Camp David. Neither are they happy with the \"hollow\" plans being floated by party leaders such as Chaim Ramon, Shlomo Ben-Ami, and Shimon Peres. Lebel says that the members long to \"re-connect to \'Israeli-ism\' and to distance themselves from what is considered the \'extreme left\' and to be identified once again with patriotism and Zionism.\"
Possibly most surprising of all is that the Labor members are quite satisfied with Ariel Sharon, and even feel that he is more worthy than Burg or Ben-Eliezer of serving as head of their own party. Sharon is perceived as responsible, security-oriented, and an old-style Mapai-nik [Ben-Gurion\'s party]. Lebel said that the Laborites are \"stunned and disappointed\" when they see their leaders engaged in in-fighting over the past three months. Peres, too, has dropped in stature, and his speech in the United Nations, where he noted \"wide Israeli support\" for a Palestinian state, symbolized everything they wished to shake off - \"not Israeli, detached from the security situation, and consistent with the positions that lost the party the public\'s trust.\"