I'm very excited about what is happening today, right this second, in the Labor Party. Although I had to cancel my Labor Party membership last January when we formed the Women's Party, if I WERE still a member of Labor, i would be EAGERLY and EXCITEDLY voting for Merav Michaeli right now...
The prospect of Merav Michaeli winning as head of the party would be a game-changer for Israeli politics. It would be the first time that we have a FEMINIST WOMAN leading a MAJOR PARTY. Some would argue that Labor is no longer a major party.... but I believe that Merav Michaeli has the potential to reinvigorate the left. If she wins, a lot of people would come back. Or even join for the first time. And when I say "people", I mean mostly women.
Why do I say this? Because the one group that has been consistently unrepresented is WOMEN. The old guard on both left and right and everything in between has ignored our needs time and again. Merav Michaeli would undoubtedly change that. And she would give WOMEN someone to vote for. Because she is not just a woman in power. She is woman DEDICATED to the WELL-BEING of women. That is a whole other thing.
We ARE fifty percent of the population. If women were to vote as an electoral bloc putting our own needs first, we could have half the Knesset. Merav Michaeli is the first major candidate in decades -- maybe ever -- who represents that world view. That is, the world that women's needs should be at the top of the nation's agenda.
Maybe after all this corona stuff, when we saw how terribly women were thrown under the bus in terms of economic needs and security needs, and when we saw how the countries that managed the crisis the best were the ones headed by women (PM Jacinda Ardern, I'm looking at you....), and maybe given the fact that some of us have been shouting about this for a very long time and perhaps have made some kind of impact, maybe NOW is the time that we will see some real change.
Merav Michaeli for the next Prime Minister of Israel!