All four candidates in Monday's Labor primaries were worthy of standing at the party's helm. They represent the essence of its views, with each candidate emphasizing a different aspect of Labor's philosophy. Shelly Yachimovich's remark that the settlement enterprise was founded by Labor and is not a crime drew fire from her opponents. Yet it was not that far from the positions they themselves expressed when asked to explain the sources of their consternation. Throughout the campaign, commentators said that if Yachimovich and Amir Peretz were elected, it could set the stage for yet another schism within the already shrivelled party. But no other party is waiting for Labor defectors with bated breath, unless a new movement takes shape out of the social protests. On Tuesday, Peretz launched his second primaries' campaign with the claim that he would go head-to-head with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a general election while Yachimovich would at best pull votes away from Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. This distinction may interest the wider public, but is lost on party members. Registered Labor voters would rather know who will win their party additional Knesset seats. The fact that Yachimovich and Peretz were forced into a runoff seven days from now may indicate that Labor's focus is now squarely on social welfare, even though Yitzhak (Buji) Herzog, who was Welfare Minister, and Amram Mitzna, who volunteered to be mayor of Yeruham, are no strangers to these difficult issues. As soon as the election results became apparent, the debate between Yachimovitch and Peretz descended into mudslinging. During an interview with Yaron Dekel on Israel Radio, Peretz spoke in harsh terms meant to inflame Labor members against his rival, but it seems unlikely that voters want such a heated conflict between their leaders. For the Israeli public as a whole, it is in the interest of even Labor's adversaries that the party converge on the center-left. Labor's weakness in recent years worked against not only the party, but against all of Israeli society. Labor entered Benjamin Netanyahu's government with eight Knesset members out of its 13, and has been straddling the coalition fence since the beginning. A series of mishaps experienced by the government in its current composition could have been avoided or at least mitigated if Labor had been a full member of the coalition. Kadima and Labor have 41 MKs combined, and had they joined the government willingly, Israel would have been better off on a number of issues concerning the primacy of the government's rule of law policy and the importance of the economy. Analyzing this issue now is like crying over spilled milk. No one will join the coalition at this point. Election season is approaching and may even take place earlier than expected. All that's left to do is hope that Labor chooses a leader who will successfully steer it toward becoming a natural partner in any Zionist coalition formed by the next Knesset.
