Labor MK Shelley Yachimovitch appeared as herself on last week's Eretz Nehederet's ongoing sketch "Shabbat Tarbut with Rachel and Naganit", days after a Haaretz-Dialog poll predicted as leader she could bring in more seats than any other candidate, in the wake of Barak's abrupt split two weeks ago.
The sketch is a spoof on the opening of the government sponsored cultural center in the settlement of Ariel which many actors and prominent leftists pledged to boycott causing a brief right-wing backlash (Ariel is in the heart of the consensus!) several months ago. In this version, the cultural center opens in a settlement outpost - a joke pointing out the extent to which the government backs these illegal settlements, while insisting they are against there continued constriction. Rucheil (NOT Rachel!) is the over-the-top settler host, who sings awful but hilarious Hebrew takes on American pop-culture songs, and has an overly controlling / weirdly sexual relationship with her younger, shy, awkward piano playing backup Yokenet.
Rucheil introduces Shelley as the most prominent woman in the Knesset (until I get an offer from Kahane), and praises her for being such a strong woman (since you need to be strong to raise 12 children).
In the more political talk Rucheil jokes about how the Labor party has finally officially closed. Shelley defends her party with the standard replies we heard a hundred times from Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Yizhak Herzog, Avishai Braverman: something along the lines of "The Labor party is not over, we have a lot more to offer". Later adding that she is going to stay in Labor to make sure it is a strong social democratic party, which helps the lower and middle classes, on the model of the modern welfare state.
Rucheil laughs and says, noting that we (the settlers) already have a welfare state.
To round off the skit, Shelley insists that she is going to keep working for social causes, like workers rights. She then turns to Yokenet, and tells her about her right to sit while working (a law which I introduce) and overtime pay. Rucheil objects to Shelley’s comments, and breaks into song screaming "here there are no laws, here there is no government, here I’m the defense minister”. Shelley leaves giving Yokenet here card and the number to Kav La'oved.
All in all it is quite hilarious, and tells us much about Yachimovitch. But it hardly begins to do justice to the progressive force and legislation she has brought to the labor party and the Israeli government in the past two Knessets.
According to her website she has authored 17 passed bills as an MK including The Law of Protection for Employees Who Uncover Corruption, The Salary Protection Act - Pay Slips, The National Health Insurance Law for Returning Citizens, The Lobbyists Law, the Elongation of Maternity Leave Law, and, of course, The Right to Work While Being Seated Law.
She has also been a tireless advocate against (Land privatization: A battle is won but the war rages on), Privatization of government companies (Yachimovich vs. Dankner: Nochi is a jobs terminator) extravagant executive pay (The problem with executive pay) and bigotry (Israel bans Arab parties from running in upcoming elections), while supporting raising taxes on gas and oil royalties Raising gas royalties: (A sea of demagoguery), religious tolerance (Shelly and the ultra-Orthodox) – even toward the ultraorthodox, and education (Education minister: Budget cuts drag Israel closer to bottom)
Interestingly, she did all of this while sitting as a member of a right wing, and then extreme right wing collation. Though she strongly opposed the general direction of the coalition she did not join the group of four "rebel" Labor MKs (Ophir Pines-Paz, Amir Peretz, Yuli Tamir, and Eitan Cabel) whom for months tried to spilt from Barak in protest of labor sitting in the Netanyahu government (Labor 'rebels' inch closer to ditching Barak for new party), before Barak beat them to it.
She instead favored Barak’s approach of working from within - which is probably what allowed her to pass her bills, but also gave some left wing credibility to the vehemently right wing government. This may work against her if she indeed decides to run for leadership of her party. Labor needs to clearly separate itself from these sad years of Barak’s leadership, which points to someone who either opposed him, or has been out of the party, as a successor.
It’s also unclear if party head would be a good fit for her. Not to lezalzel on workers rights laws, but the leader of the Labor party needs to get their hands dirty on the bigger issues of peace process and security which she has stayed relatively quiet about in her Knesset career. The leader also needs to spend too much time dealing with bickering within the party in an often feeble attempt to keep a unified front. All of which will stray her energies from the heroic work she has been doing on the social justice front.
Then again Barak got the nod as chairman when everyone seemed to think that for labor have any chance they need to be strong on security. And look where that got them
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