On the very same night Tsipi Livni won the primary of the Kadima Party in Israel, Naomi Chazan had this to say about the woman who could very well be the next prime minister of Israel.
“[Ehud] Barak and [Benjamin] Netanyahu have one thing in common: They failed as prime ministers. They want to come back and assure us that they’ve learned from their mistakes,” Chazan said in a talk to the New Israel Fund’s core supporters at a dessert reception Sept. 17 in San Francisco’s Four Seasons Hotel.
“Livni comes from the heart of the Likud. She understands better than Barak or Netanyahu — both with their military background — that Israel’s survival and future depends on a Palestinian state next to Israel.”
Chazan served in the Knesset from 1992 to 2003 in the left-wing Meretz party. An outspoken human rights activist, she has long fought for equality for women as well as Israel’s Arab citizens. Currently the head of the School of Government and Society at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Chazan is also professor emerita at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Her visit to San Francisco came shortly after the addition of a new title to her lengthy resume: president of the board of directors of the New Israel Fund, a role she assumed in June of this year. The New Israel Fund, which was founded in San Francisco 29 years ago, provides funds for more than 800 organizations working to improve civil society by affecting social change in Israel.
Chazan told NIF supporters that they “care about the heart and soul of Israel, not only its survival.”
Chazan described a precarious time in Israel now. Despite the fact that the shekel remains strong, the country’s economy is closely tied to that of America, she said.
“Twenty-three percent of the country is below the poverty level, as is one out of every three children,” she said, adding that “when things go bad, the poor suffer the most.”
The country’s educational system is failing, too, she said, with Israel’s students falling to a rank of 39 or 40 in comparison with their peers around the world in math, science and English. A decade ago, Israel was often in the top 10.
Furthermore, she said, violent crime is up — both domestic violence and violence in schools. And speaking of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s current troubles, she said, “We have a problem with corruption. I’m proud that the public outcry about it is so strong, but it means we have a problem with it.”
But Chazan’s outlook isn’t all gloomy.
“I love periods of transition because they bring about the greatest change,” she said.
Speaking again of Livni, Chazan said, “Will she go as far as I want her to go? I don’t know, but she’s put negotiations with the Palestinians at the center of her agenda. She’s not yet a fully progressive voice in Israel but she grasps that Israel’s existence depends on a two-state solution — those are her words, not mine. Given the choices available, she is our best bet.”
Chazan sounded a sour note for the alternative.
“Both societies need an agreement now, because if we wait for the kind of leaders we’d like to have, they won’t be there,” she warned. “This is eating away at our inner core. The alternative to an agreement is worse. Hope is in short supply, because we’ve become so cynical.”