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Hatnua () was a liberal political party in Israel formed by former Israeli Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister Tzipi Livni to present an alternative to voters frustrated by the stalemate in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
The party was formed by dissidents in Kadima, which Livni, who had led the party's Progressivism wing, headed until March 2012 when she lost a leadership primary election to rival Shaul Mofaz, who was part of the party's more conservative wing.See also the political compasses made for the 2013 elections by Haaretz () and Kieskompas () (in collaboration with the Israel Democracy Institute and The Jerusalem Post), both of which placed Hatnua led by Tzipi Livni to the left of Kadima led by Mofaz. This was the case in Kieskompas on both the vertical axis (factoring positions on Peace and Territories, Security and Terror, and Religion and State) and horizontal axis ( Economy and Welfare, Civil and Human Rights, and Law and Governability), as well as Haaretz on both the vertical axis ( Secular versus Religious) and horizontal axis ( Left versus Right). The party was based on the infrastructure of Hetz, a faction that broke away from Shinui in 2006. Relatively close in ideology to Yesh Atid and the Labor Party, which focused mostly on domestic and socioeconomic issues in their 2013 campaigns, Hatnua stood out for its aggressive push for a pragmatic peace settlement with the Palestinians.
In the 2013 legislative election, Hatnua ran on a joint list with the Green Movement, and incorporated many of its core ideals into the party's platform. Hatnua's 2013 platform emphasized Arab–Israeli peace, social justice, environmental protection, the integration of all citizens into the military and workforce, and religious pluralism.
In the 2015 legislative election, it ran on a joint electoral list with the Labor Party called the Zionist Union, which became the second-largest parliamentary group. In January 2019, Labor chairman Avi Gabay announced that Labor would not run with Hatnua in the April 2019 election. Following several weeks of poor poll results, Livni announced on 18 February 2019 that Hatnua would drop out of the election and that she was retiring from politics.
The party was formed by taking over the remains of the Hetz party, also inheriting the NIS 1.8 million in the party's bank account. It began with seven members of the Knesset, all of whom were allies of Livni who were breaking away from Kadima.
Following its establishment, Ynetnews published a poll on 30 November 2011 showing Livni to be more favored than Labor leader Shelly Yachimovich, and overall the strongest candidate for Prime Minister against the incumbent, Netanyahu. On 1 December 2012, former Labor leader Amram Mitzna joined the party. A second former Labor leader, Amir Peretz, joined the party on 6 December. The party campaigned on diplomatic issues, mainly peace with the Palestinians and preserving international support for Israel.
Before forming Hatnua, Livni turned away an offer from Yair Lapid for the No. 2 seat on the Yesh Atid list, as well as an offer from Shelly Yachimovich for a seat on the Labor Party list.Jonathan Lis,
In a Jerusalem Post interview, Livni said she created Hatnua because there was a vacancy for a non-socialist party "representing the need to relaunch negotiations." She suggested that other parties had narrow agendas and that her party would not ignore the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which she said was connected to other issues affecting Israel.Gil Hoffman, Politics: Livni as Netanyahu's foreign minister? Jerusalem Post, 14 December 2012
Eighteen days before the 2013 election, Livni called on Yachimovich and Lapid to come together and form a united front against Likud Beiteinu. 18 Days to Israeli Election Livni Calls on Yacimovich, Lapid to Form United Front Against Netanyahu, Haaretz, 4 January 2013 Both leaders were receptive to the idea, but Lapid said the parties should consider joining a Netanyahu-led government after the election to prevent extremist parties from joining the governing coalition.Meirav Arlosoroff and Sivan Klingbail,
Having worked as Israel's lead peace negotiator, Livni is well respected internationally and has a good relationship with the Palestinian leadership. The party campaigned almost exclusively on foreign policy issues, pushing for renewed peace talks with the Palestinians and preserving support from the international community, especially the United States.
Livni has stated that there should be a three-step process in order to resume negotiations with the Palestinians; the first step would be to ensure coordination with America; the second step would be utilizing the EU to back the negotiations; the third step would be to direct negotiations with the Palestinians; she also stated that there would be no negotiations with Hamas unless it renounced terrorism. It was also committed to passing Basic Laws that protect the environment and social rights. It was in favor of a differential value added tax as well as canceling existing subsidies for West Bank settlements and ultra-Orthodox sectoral interests while increasing the fees charged for the mining of natural resources. Livni has long been an advocate for women's rights and gay rights, and her party supported same-sex marriage in Israel.
The party's social agenda was similar to that of other centre-left parties. Livni is Progressivism and is well known for having refused the coalition terms of religious parties as the leader of Kadima. Israel election: Who are the key candidates?, BBC (14 March 2015) Hatnua was liberal on matters of religion and state. Like Yesh Atid, it was in favor of conversion reform.
The party supported Third Way economic policies. It saw economic issues, as with other issues, as interconnected with the country's security and diplomacy situation. According to Livni, the absence of a peace deal can hinder Israel's economic growth and its chances of allying with moderate Arab states. Robert Siegel speaks with Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Minister of Justice and the country's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, about the future of the failed peace process.
During his tenure as environmental protection minister, Peretz championed the slogan "it is impossible to separate environmental and social justice", and his campaigns within the ministry have followed suit. Many of the changes Peretz led involved minority or periphery communities, such as ongoing efforts to bring waste infrastructure to Arab towns and Bedouin villages, in particular. Other accomplishment involved the government approval of a NIS 45 million budget for addressing environmental deficiencies for residents of the south and the eradication of free plastic bags from grocery stores. With Livni's approval, he resigned as cabinet minister in November 2014, citing his frustration with Netanyahu's policies and the lack of peace negotiations. He remained a member of Hatnua and the governing coalition.
Hatnua often sparred with the Jewish Home, another coalition partner, particularly with regard to peace negotiations, which Hatnua continuously pushed for, and which the Jewish Home vehemently opposed.Jeremy Ashkenas, In Netanyahu's Next Knesset, a More Compatible Coalition, New York Times, 19 March 2015 As Justice Minister, Livni also advanced a bill to give equal inheritance rights to same-sex couples.Itamar Sharon, Committee okays inheritance between same-sex partners, Times of Israel, 12 May 2014
On 2 December 2014, Netanyahu fired Livni from her cabinet portfolio, accusing her and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid then Minister of Finance, of conspiring to bring down the governing coalition in a "putsch". The following week, Hatnua agreed to run on a joint list with the opposition Labor Party in the ensuing March 2015 election, with Livni alleging that Likud had been taken over by right-wing extremists. If the joint list wins the election and is able to form a government, under the agreement, the position of Prime Minister would rotate between Livni and Labor leader Isaac Herzog. In protest of the alliance, Elazar Stern left the party on 20 December 2014 and soon joined Yesh Atid. Tzur, Mitzna, and Sheetrit announced their retirement from politics altogether; of them, Tzur and Mitzna expressed support for the alliance with Labor, while Sheetrit said he opposed it. Peretz, the only MK to join Livni, not only supported the alliance, but later added he would like to see a full merger between the parties.Gil Hoffman, Peretz, Cabel: Herzog should get another chance, Jerusalem Post, 1 April 2015
As part of its agreement with Labor, Livni received the second spot on the joint list. Spots 8, 16, 21, 24, 25, and 28 were also reserved for Hatnua members, going, in order, to Peretz, former Kadima MK and Livni ally Yoel Hasson, Israel Plus journalist and analyst on Arab affairs Ksenia Svetlova, Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Ben-Reuven, Israeli Green Movement co-chair Yael Cohen-Paran, and former Kadima MK Robert Tiviaev.
In the 2015 elections Hatnua had seven seats reserved for it on the Zionist Union list, with five elected as the list won 24 seats. In September 2015, Hatnua MK Amir Peretz defected to their Zionist Union sister party Labor, thus reducing Hatnua's representation to 4 seats. In November 2015, Labor Party MK Danny Atar resigned from the Knesset to chair the Jewish National Fund, leaving Hatnua candidate Yael Cohen Paran, to replace him, increasing Hatnua's representation back to 5 seats. Cohen Paran's entrance in the Knesset brought the total number of female MKs to 32, the highest ever.
Hatnua's faction in the 20th Knesset comprised the following MKs:
On 1 January 2019 at a live televised Zionist Union party meeting, Labor leader Avi Gabay announced that Labor would not run with Hatnua in the upcoming April 2019 Israeli legislative election, surprising Livni. Electoral polls showed that Hatnua was not close to crossing the 3.25% electoral threshold, and Livni announced on 18 February 2019 that Hatnua would not run in the elections, so as not to split the centre-left vote, as well as her own retirement from politics.
Formation
Following months of speculation, Livni announced the establishment of Hatnua at a press conference in Tel Aviv on 27 November 2012, describing it as a "liberal, secular, and democratic party," with "room for the very best of Likud" and Labor. In her announcement, Livni cited the need for the party after the government had entered into ceasefire negotiations with Hamas while peace talks with the Palestinian Authority were not occurring. She later described her mission in an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post, saying, "I've come to fight for peace. ... I've come to fight for security. ... I've come to fight for a Jewish state. ... I've come to fight for a democratic Israel." In addition, Livni pledged to push for military conscription of the ultra-Orthodox and to promote social justice initiatives for Israel's youth, noting that the then-recent Likud primaries only strengthened the party's hard-right faction. Guide to Israel's political parties, BBC, 21 January 2013
[https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-livni-redux-labor-attacks-just-in-case-1.5265697 "Israel's Labor Party Attacks Livni Plan to Throw Hat Into Election Race"], ''Haaretz'', 24 November 2012
[https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-tzipi-livni-peace-trumps-all-1.5224998 "Livni Talks to Haaretz About Politics, Economics, and the 'Greatest Tragedy Facing Israel'"], ''Haaretz'', 2013 January 18
Ideology and politics
Hatnua was described as a liberalism party "Tzipi Livni, subalterna de Herzog para no desaparecer del mapa político israelí", ABC, 16 March 2015. "Desde entonces, Livni se ha visto despojada del liderazgo del Kadima, creó una nueva formación de corte liberal -Hatnuá- con la que ganó sólo seis escaños en los comicios de 2013, y ha visto languidecer su otrora prometedor horizonte político hasta tal punto que, para salvarse, ha preferido la unión con el Laborismo, partido del que ideológicamente ha estado siempre alejada." adhering to secularism, environmentalism and liberal Zionism,Carlo Strenger, Israel today: a society without a center, Haaretz (7 March 2014) news sources also noted the party's commitment to a two-state solution.
19th Knesset
The party went on to win six seats in the 2013 Knesset elections. It did not endorse any candidate for prime minister to President Shimon Peres. Amid reports that coalition negotiations between Netanyahu and the Yesh Atid and Jewish Home factions, which formed an alliance, were floundering, Hatnua became the first party sign on to joining Benjamin Netanyahu's government.Jodi Rudoren, Israel: Deal Gives Netanyahu Rival Palestinian Portfolio, New York Times, 19 February 2013 As part of its coalition agreement, Hatnua received the Justice Ministry (held by Livni) and the Environmental Protection Ministry (held by Peretz), and a ministerial team for the peace process with the Palestinians was established with Livni as chief negotiator.Ruth Levush, Israel: 2013 Government Composition and Coalition Agreements, Law Library of Congress Coalition negotiations also involved the issue of ultra-Orthodox military conscription. Hatnua MK Elazar Stern, whose long-running work on the matter also formed Yesh Atid's position thereon, sought to stiffen sanctions against yeshivas that fail to meet conscription targets.Yair Ettinger, Livni to join Netanyahu coalition, but divide remains deep on Haredi draft, Haaretz, 20 February 2013 Livni said she would not officially join Netanyahu's government without other centre-left parties; Yesh Atid eventually signed on as a coalition partner.
Electoral history
In the 2013 Israeli legislative election, Hatnua won 6 seats with almost 5% of the votes, while the remainder of Kadima won 2 seats with 2% of the votes. The party had a surplus vote agreement with Meretz.
Amir Peretz was elected as a Hatnua member, but rejoined the Labor Party during the Knesset term.
Election results
2013 Tzipi Livni 189,167 (#7) 4.99 1 2015 Part of the Zionist Union 0
See also
External links
Categories: Official Website, Defunct Political Parties In Israel, Liberal Parties In Israel, Political Parties Established In 2012, Secularism In Israel, Zionist Political Parties In Israel, Centrist Parties In Israel, Centre-left Parties In Asia, Political Parties Disestablished In 2019, 2012 Establishments In Israel, Tzipi Livni, Amir Peretz
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