MK Gal-On: Beilin failed Meretz, I'm a worthy successor

Bullshit!! Samuel Cohen, Galon owes her seat to Yossi Beilin and she and her friends
are to Blame for not getting more seats for Meretz!!
PS. Now Five Seats, not 4
Last update - 09:09 30/03/2006
MK Gal-On: Beilin failed Meretz, I'm a worthy successor
By Lilach Weissman and Yulie Khromchenko, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service

Meretz faction chief Zahava Gal-On on Thursday heaped more criticism on party leader Yossi Beilin for the poor performance in Tuesday's election, and nominated herself as a worthy successor.

Meretz lost two seats in the elections for the next Knesset, taking it from its current six to just four. Although party regulations stipulate new elections for the chairmanship within one year, senior officials within Meretz are working to expedite the date of the elections in the wake of Tuesday's failure.

"Meretz needs to return to being a party in the spirit of Shulamit Aloni, which protects human rights," Gal-On told Israel Radio on Thursday, adding that she sees herself as a worthy leadership candidate.

"The drop in [seat] numbers calls for soul-searching and taking responsibility," she said. "There has been a failure here in the leadership of the chairman of the party."

Gal-On had announced her intention to run Wednesday night, along with MK Ran Cohen, Beilin's runner-up in the last leadership race.

"Meretz needs to internalize the lessons in the most courageous way possible," Cohen told Haaretz on Wednesday afternoon. "Five years ago, we were 10 seats. This is a flop that requires learning of lessons and not just personal lessons."

"In the coming year, according to the party constitution, there will be elections for chairman," Cohen, who criticized the messages and the management of the campaign, said.

"We have to think differently," Cohen said. "The way is to place the socio-economic issue at the head of Meretz's efforts on an equal footing with the diplomatic-security matter."

Cohen added that he advocated that exact policy during his campaign which ended in defeat to Beilin.

"We could have preceded the others by raising the social flag, but when we failed to do that we lost some of our supporters to parties which did advance those issues - Labor and the Pensioners," Cohen said. "Everyone needs to learn their lessons, not just Beilin, but also whoever rejected my proposal."

Throughout the campaign, party officials repeated their criticism of Meretz's increasing emphasis on the diplomatic policy and the Geneva Initiative while toning down the social banner.