Shinui
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Shinui
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| Leader | Ron Levintal |
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| Founded | 1974 |
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| Ideology | Liberalism, centrism, anti-clericalism |
| International affiliation | Liberal International |
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| Website www.shinui.org.il |
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Shinui (Hebrew: שינוי, lit. Change) is a Zionist, secular and anti-clerical free market liberal party in Israel. The party has twice become the third largest in the Knesset, but on both occasions it was followed by a split and collapse; in 1977 the party won 15 seats as part of the Democratic Movement for Change, but the alliance split in 1978 and Shinui was reduced to two seats at the next elections. In 2003 the party won 15 seats alone, but lost them all three years later after most of its MKs left to form new parties. The party is a member of Liberal International.
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[edit] History
[edit] 1970s
Shinui was established by business people and academics in 1974, following the 1973 Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War, which shook the Israeli public. Prior to the 1977 elections it formed an alliance with several other small liberal parties. Initially the party was called Democrats-Shinui, but was soon changed to the Democratic Movement for Change and, as with many parties in Israel, became popularly known by its acronym, Dash. The new party caught the public's imagination, with over 37,000 people signing up as members within a few weeks of its foundation. It also pioneered the use of primaries to choose its electoral list, something that was intended to show its democratic credentials and prevent cronyism. Previously in Israel, party lists had been decided upon by the parties' committees, but since the late 1970s, almost every party in Israel (with the exception of the Ultra-orthodox ones, Shas and United Torah Judaism) has followed Dash's lead and adopted the primaries system.
The new party won 15 seats, the best performance by the third party since the 1961 elections. This made it the third largest party after Menachem Begin's Likud and the Alignment, which had shrunk from 51 to 32 seats. However, Begin was still able to form a narrow 61-seat right-wing coalition with Shlomtzion (Ariel Sharon's party), the National Religious Party and Agudat Israel.
Dash were invited into the coalition in November 1977, five months after the Knesset term had started. The party picked up several ministerial portfolios - Meir Amit was made Minister of Transportation and Minister of Communications, Shmuel Tamir became Minister of Justice and Yadin was named as Deputy Prime Minister. However, the fact that Dash did not control the balance of power led to internal disagreements over its role. The alliance began to disintegrate, finally splitting in three on 14 September, 1978, with seven MKs breaking away to reform Shinui, another seven founding the Democratic Movement and Assaf Yaguri creating Ya'ad. Shinui (including Amit) and Ya'ad left the coalition, whilst the Democratic Movement, which included Tamir and Yadin, remained in the government. Two Shinui MKs defected to the Alignment, leaving the party with five seats in 1981.
[edit] 1980s
In the 1981 elections the party was reduced to two seats. In 1984 they won three seats and were invited to join the national unity government, but pulled out of the coalition on 26 May 1987. Although the party gained an MK from the Alignment, it lost Mordechai Virshubski to Ratz. The party was renamed Shinui - The Centre Party during certain periods.
[edit] 1990s
In the 1988 elections Shinui was reduced to two seats. Although the party gained an MK from the Alignment, they lost another to Ratz. However, in 1992 it joined with Ratz and Mapam to form the leftist alliance Meretz. The new party won 12 seats in the 1992 elections, and were Yitzhak Rabin's major coalition partners in his Labour-led government.
In 1996 the three parties decided to officially merge to form a united Meretz party. Although Shinui leader Amnon Rubinstein supported the merger, most party members sought to distance themselves from the leftist social-democratic elements in Meretz. Two MKs (out of the nine Meretz won in the 1996 elections) broke away to re-establish Shinui as an independent party in 1997 under the leadership of Avraham Poraz.
Prior to the 1999 elections the party was taken over by TV celebrity Tommy Lapid, who was known for his fierce rhetoric against religious coercion. The party changed its name to Shinui - the Secular Movement and refused to join any coalition which includes the ultra-orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism. In the elections, Shinui won 6 seats.
[edit] 2000s
In the 2003 elections the party won 15 seats, making it the third-largest in the Knesset. Ariel Sharon invited the party to form a secular right-wing coalition, with Shinui taking several key ministerial positions, including the Internal Affairs ministry, a key position in the secular-religious struggle. The party used its bargaining power to close down the Religious Affairs ministry.
[edit] Paritzky affair
In July 2004 a tape recording of Shinui MK and Minister of Infrastructure Yosef Paritzki was exposed. In the tape, Paritzki was heard to ask a private investigator to investigate the actions of his Shinui colleague Avraham Poraz. The private investigator was probably paid by the workers' union of Israel's Power Company (IPC), which wanted to prevent a law bill by Poraz denying the IPC workers many privileges they currently hold.
In response, Shinui publicly denounced and condemned Paritzki and asked Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to fire Paritzki from the cabinet, and called on Paritzki to resign from the Knesset and leave Shinui. Paritzki refused and blamed Shinui and other factors in a plot against him; he eventually formed his own party, Tzalash. A criminal investigation was ended without any indictment or any further legal proceedings.
[edit] Religious parties join the coalition
In August 2004 Sharon initiated coalition negotiations with several other parties after he lost the government majority required to support his disengagement plan. Although he preferred to form a Likud-Labor-Shinui "secular unity" government, this was thwarted by Likud MKs. Sharon then started negotiations with Shas and United Torah Judaism. Although Shinui had vowed not to sit in a coalition with either party, after significant pressure from Sharon, and to avoid being blamed for thwarting the implementation of the disengagement plan, Lapid retracted his vow and agreed to let UTJ join the coalition if they would agree to the government's principles.
[edit] Shinui out of the cabinet
On 1 December 2004 Shinui voted against Sharon's 2005 budget, which included subsidies to UTJ projects. In response, Sharon fired the Shinui ministers from the cabinet. On 10 January 2005 Labour joined the coalition, replacing Shinui. However, the party continued to support the disengagement and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's financial reforms. Following its departure from the government, the party was renamed Shinui - Party for the Secular and the Middle Class.
[edit] Poraz affair and party split
In June 2005 Poraz was confronted by party activists who accused him and Lapid of dictatorial control of the party, was recorded by them offering vacation flights out of the country and other financial favours. The tape reached Maariv, which at the time was running its "Where is the Shame" anti-corruption campaign led by its editor Amnon Dankner and top columnist Dan Margalit. However, the affair generated little publicity as the party was outside the government. Nevertheless, the issues were brought to a head in September 2005 when Rubinstein criticized Lapid for stifling criticism and not engaging efforts to expand the party's membership.
On 12 January 2006 the party held internal primary elections in preparation for the elections that year. In a surprise result, Ron Levintal beat Poraz in the contest for second place on the party's list behind Lapid (who was re-elected with 53% of the votes). This resulted in the party splitting, with five MKs ( Poraz, Ilan Shalgi, Meli Polishook-Bloch, Eti Livni and Ronny Brison) leaving the party to form a new party they claimed would represent the "real Shinui". On 25 January Lapid resigned as party chairman and left the party declaring it no longer worthy of support.[1] By then a total of eleven MKs had left Shinui and formed a new party, the Secular Faction (later renamed Hetz), led by Poraz and supported by Lapid. After Yigal Yasinov also left the party, Shunui was left with only two MKs, Ehud Ratzabi and Ilan Leibovitch.
Before the elections Levintal made several conciliatory gestures toward Hetz, attempting negotiations with them, the anti-corruption Tafnit party led by Uzi Dayan, and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak over the prospect of forming a united front, but to no avail. In the election Shinui won just 4,675 votes, 0.16% of the total, well below the 2% (62,741 votes) electoral threshold. Hetz won only 10,113 votes, meaning that both parties lost their Knesset representation.
[edit] Ideology
[edit] Religion and state
Despite nearly 30 years of public support of Liberal-Capitalist economic and social policies, its best known platform plank is a call for separation of religion and state within the confines of Zionist ideology. It demands civil marriage (although it has opposed a bill to enact it in March 2004), the operation of public transportation, businesses, theaters, etc. on Shabbat, removal of laws concerning selling and importing non-kosher food, drafting of ultra-orthodox Jews into the IDF, and a halt to payments to yeshiva students.
Because of such demands and the inflammatory tone of its current leadership, it is sometimes accused of being anti-religious or hating the religious, and so some, including many secular people who would otherwise agree with its platform, would not vote for it. The party's official position is that it does not oppose religion but merely seeks to mend the inequities that exist because of religion. Their television campaign for the 2006 elections showed ultra-orthodox Jews dragging onto secular voter, and as the secular man votes for Shinui, all the ultra-orthodox vanish in midair.
Conforming to its liberal orientation, Shinui recently adopted a unanimous resolution to create an in-party forum for gay, lesbian bisexual and transgendered people.
[edit] Economy
Economically, Shinui supports a free market, privatization of public assets, and a lowering of taxes, especially taxes on the middle class. The party has also objected to the introduction of a progressive estate tax.
[edit] Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Shinui's position on Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in accord with the mainstream centrist consensus. Shinui supported the anti-terrorism actions undertaken by Ariel Sharon, including direct targeting of terrorist leaders such as Ahmed Yassin.
Shinui supports negotiation with the Palestinians concerning the final status and a Palestinian state, which would include removal of Israeli settlements and withdrawal from most of the West Bank and Gaza. It asserts that both the right and left mislead the public. The right by claiming that only force will solve the problem, and the left by claiming that there is a Palestinian partner for peace.
Shinui strongly supports the Israeli West Bank barrier and the disengagement plan.
[edit] Political ethics and the fight against corruption
Shinui proclaimed itself as a defender of political purity and lawful conduct. It promised to set an example for an uncorrupted party whose members are not suspected of involvement in criminal activity or financial irregularities. Shinui sees itself as an antithesis to Shas, many of whose MKs have been convicted in various corruption probes. Accordingly, Lapid requested and received the Justice and Internal Affairs ministries when in government (the latter having been formerly held by Shas). Shinui also frequently praise the Supreme Court of Israel as a guardian of the law and moral values.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official website (English)
- Shinui - The Centre Party Knesset website (English)
- Shinui - The Secular Movement Knesset website (English)
- Shinui - Party for the Secular and the Middle Class Knesset website (English)
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