Israel Democratic Party

The party was Barak’s vehicle for returning to electoral politics and seeking a center-left coalition capable of replacing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.[2] Rather than contest the Labor Party leadership again, the former prime minister and Labor leader established a new organization and expressed interest in cooperation with Labor, Meretz, Benny Gantz, and Yair Lapid.[2]

Barak presented the party’s outlook as commitment to a Jewish, Zionist, and democratic state guided by Israel’s Declaration of Independence, and said it would not join a Netanyahu-led government.[4] Its reported members included former Israel Defense Forces deputy chief of staff Yair Golan, law professor Yifat Biton, entrepreneur Kobi Richter, former Labor member Yaya Fink, attorney and author Noa Rothman, and Sagit Peretz Deri, formerly head of the Jewish Home women’s caucus.[4]

Israel Democratic was a constituent party of the joint electoral slate known in English as the Democratic Union or Democratic Camp, rather than an alternative name for the entire alliance.[3][5] The alliance’s policies and five-seat election result therefore belonged to the joint slate, not to Barak’s organization alone.[3][6]

On June 26, 2019, Barak announced in Tel Aviv that he would return to politics and contest the coming election through a new party.[1] Golan, Richter, and Biton appeared alongside him at the announcement, where he called for political alliances and an effort to end Netanyahu’s rule.[1] The return followed six years away from politics and came during preparations for Israel’s September repeat election.[7]

The party initially had no publicly announced name; on July 6, Barak announced the name Israel Democratic, or ישראל דמוקרטית.[4][8] Its nationwide digital and billboard campaign used the slogan “Netanyahu’s state or Israel’s state.”[8] Explaining the campaign, Barak said that democracy was close to a “complete dismantling” and identified what he regarded as threats to the rule of law, courts, police, and national solidarity.[8]

On July 25, Meretz agreed to run with Barak’s party on a joint electoral list.[9] The alliance also brought in the Green Movement and Stav Shaffir, who left Labor and was associated with the Green Movement.[5] Labor itself did not join the list.[9] Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz headed the slate, Shaffir received second place, and Barak chose the tenth position.[5]

Israel Democratic members received several additional places on the list, including third, seventh, ninth, fourteenth, and fifteenth.[9] The first ten candidates included Golan, Biton, Rothman, and Barak as representatives of his party.[5] The joint list was intended in part to reduce the risk of left-wing votes being lost to parties that failed to pass the 3.25 percent electoral threshold.[5]

At the alliance’s launch, Barak described the partnership as a new political force intended to generate momentum, hope, and change.[10] He acknowledged differences among the partners but argued that their common ground was greater, presenting the agreement as a possible first step toward further political unifications.[10] The reported agreement provided for Horowitz, Shaffir, and Barak to make decisions jointly and committed the alliance not to join a right-wing government.[10]

Barak’s party combined opposition to Netanyahu with an appeal to restore hope, unite Israelis, and bring the country “back on track.”[4] Among his proposals was an integration plan for Haredi Israelis based on national service rather than military service.[4] At the launch of the then-unnamed party, he declared: “The future of the Zionist movement is on the line here.”[7]

The initiative formed part of a broader effort by former military officers to replace Netanyahu.[7] Some of those officers viewed separation from the Palestinians as a means of preserving Israel’s future as both a Jewish and democratic state.[7] Barak’s own electoral strategy was to attract additional support to a center-left coalition rather than simply compete for leadership of an existing party.[2]

The Democratic Union’s domestic program included a social-democratic welfare state, reduced inequality, separation of religion and state, civil marriage, and recognition of Arab citizens as a national minority with collective rights.[6] These were positions of the alliance, rather than a separately documented platform of Israel Democratic.[6] Horowitz described the joint slate’s aims as reducing social gaps, pursuing peace with the Palestinians, promoting a constitution, and protecting democracy and a free media.[10]

On foreign policy, the alliance supported a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders with land swaps, a freeze on settlement building, and a gradual, coordinated end to the Gaza blockade.[6] Its reported agreement also committed the partners to pursue a peace agreement while protecting Israel’s security interests, repeal the Nation-State Law, reduce socioeconomic gaps, protect Israel’s democratic character, and promote a constitution.[5]

In the September 2019 election, the Democratic Union received 192,495 votes, representing 4.34 percent of the vote, and won five Knesset seats.[11] Because Barak occupied tenth place on the list, the result did not return him to the Knesset.[11] The five seats were won by the shared electoral slate, which remained under Horowitz’s leadership after the election.[3]

The alliance brought together Meretz, Barak’s new organization, the Green Movement, and Shaffir after her departure from Labor, while leaving Labor itself outside the agreement.[9][5] Its formation thus realized part of Barak’s effort to unite political forces for the election, but not the broader bloc with Labor, Gantz, and Lapid that he had expressed interest in building.[2][9]

In a later first-person account, Shaffir recalled recurring difficulty in uniting Labor and Meretz and said she gave up her Knesset seat “to guarantee the union under a new name (‘The Democratic Union’).”[12] She described her hoped-for union as “a fresh start: the construction of a democratic camp fighting for peace, equality, and liberal values.”[12] Her account concerned the shared electoral organization, not Barak’s constituent party.[12] The alliance disbanded before the March 2020 election.[13]

Barak’s return raised concerns that a new party would draw voters away from Blue and White and fragment the opposition to Netanyahu.[7] He rejected that argument, maintaining that the initiative could instead increase the center-left’s total number of seats.[7] His warnings of an imminent democratic breakdown, including his comparison with the Iranian threat, were campaign assessments used to justify the party’s creation, rather than independently established findings about Israel’s political condition.[2][8]