MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: Young Israelis Are Joining the ‘Old Folks Party,’ but Does Labor Have a Future?

A year after Merav Michaeli took over the slumping outfit that ruled the country in its early decades, young people are joining as the new team focuses on gender issues, the environment and peace

Judy Maltz Jan. 20, 2022 HAARETZ

Ori Anolik grew up on Sde Nehemia, a kibbutz in northern Israel where just about everyone votes Labor, practically out of force of habit. “It isn’t something they think about much,” says the 24-year-old college student who now lives in Jerusalem.

Anolik became eligible to vote in April 2019, Israel’s first of three elections in less than a year, all of which ended in a stalemate. Like almost everyone else on his kibbutz, including his parents and grandparents, Anolik identified strongly with the social democratic values represented by Labor. But he couldn’t bring himself to vote for the party that had ruled Israel for its first three decades and was very much identified with the kibbutz movement.