Shinui שינוי | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Ron Levintal Tommy Lapid Avraham Poraz Amnon Rubinstein |
| Founded | 26 March 1974 (1974-03-26) |
| Split from | Dash (1978) |
| Merged into | Dash (1976) Hetz (2006) |
| Ideology | |
| Political position |
|
| International affiliation | Liberal International[18][19] |
| Alliance | Meretz (1992–1997) |
| Knesset | 0 / 120 |
| Most MKs | 15 (2003) |
| Election symbol | |
| הן,יש | |
| Website | |
| shinui.org.il | |
Shinui (Hebrew:שִׁינּוּי,lit. 'Change') was aZionist,secular, andanti-clericalfree marketliberal party and political movement inIsrael. The party twice became the third-largest in theKnesset, but both occasions were followed by a split and collapse; in1977, the party won 15 seats as part of theDemocratic Movement for Change, but the alliance split in 1978, and Shinui was reduced to two seats at thenext elections. In2003, the party won 15 seats alone, but lost them allthree years later after most of its MKs left to form new parties. The party was a member ofLiberal International until 2009.[citation needed]
Though it had been the standard-bearer ofeconomic liberalism andsecularism in Israel for 30 years, the formation ofKadima robbed Shinui of its natural constituency, and in January 2006 the party split into small factions, none of which managed to overcome the 2% threshold needed to enter the Knesset.[20]
As Israel made its transition from a developing nation into an economically prosperous one, a highly educated middle class emerged, tracing its historical political orientation to Labor Zionism. Many of these Israelis banded together to form Shinui.[21]
Shinui was established by business people and academics in 1974, following the 1973 Arab–IsraeliYom Kippur War, which shook the Israeli public. Prior to the1977 elections, it formed an alliance with several other small liberal parties. Initially, the party was calledDemocrats–Shinui, but was soon changed to theDemocratic 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 ofprimaries 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, many parties in Israel (excluding theultra-Orthodox partiesShas andUnited Torah Judaism, and thecentrist parties likeYesh Atid,Hosen,Telem, andKulanu) have followed Dash's lead and adopted the primaries system.[citation needed]
The new party won 15 seats, the best performance by the third party since the1961 elections. This made it the third-largest party afterMenachem Begin'sLikud 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 withShlomtzion (Ariel Sharon's party), theNational Religious Party, andAgudat 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 madeMinister of Transportation and Minister of Communications,Shmuel Tamir becameMinister of Justice, andYigael 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 from theMovement for Change and Initiative, which was later renamed Shinui, another seven founding theDemocratic Movement, andAssaf Yaguri creatingYa'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.
In the1981 elections, the party was reduced to two seats. In1984, they won three seats, and were invited to join thenational unity government, but pulled out of the coalition on 26 May 1987. Although the party gained an MK from the Alignment, it lostMordechai Virshubski toRatz. The party was renamedShinui – The Center Party during certain periods.
By 1985,Liberal International was considering admitting Shinui as a member in place of theLiberal Party. While the Liberal Party had formed an alliance with Herut in the Likud bloc, Shinui was dovish and allied with theLabor Alignment.[22] Shinui joined Liberal International as a member in 1986.[18][19]
In the1988 elections, Shinui presented a joint list with the New Liberal Party,[23] and 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 andMapam to form the leftist alliance,Meretz. Meretz won 12 seats in the1992 elections, and wasYitzhak Rabin's major coalition partners in hisLabor-led government.
In 1996, the three parties decided to officially merge to form a united Meretz party. Although Shinui leaderAmnon 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 the1996 elections) broke away to re-establish Shinui as an independent party in 1997 under the leadership ofAvraham Poraz. In the run-up to the1999 elections, the party's first independent electoral contest in 11 years, Poraz tried to brand the party as a representative of themiddle class, and focused on reducing government intervention in the economy and tax burdens. However, this approach did not yield the party any new voters, and opinion polls predicted that Shinui would not make it past the threshold.
Meanwhile, Avraham Poraz's views and political activities, combined with his distance from Meretz's leftist stances and lack of public association between the two, won the support of TV celebrityTommy Lapid, who was known for his fierce rhetoric against religious coercion. As a result of last-minute negotiations between the two, the party changed its name toShinui – the Secular Movement, and reserved the most electable positions on the Shinui list to Lapid and his associates at the expense of established Shinui members. For example, Lapid himself, who was not a party member at the time, was given the first place on the list, traditionally reserved to the party leader, while Poraz (who remained Shinui's formal party leader) was relegated to second place.
In the elections, Shinui won 6 seats, and announced its refusal to join any coalition that includes theultra-Orthodox partiesShas andUnited Torah Judaism. As a result of this relative success in the 1999 elections, Lapid and his representatives formally joined the Shinui party, with the party leadership passing from Poraz to Lapid.
In the2003 elections, the party won 15 seats, making it the third-largest in the Knesset.Ariel Sharon invited the party to form a secular coalition, with Shinui taking several key ministerial positions, including theInternal Affairs ministry, a key position in the secular-religious struggle. The party used its bargaining power to close down the Religious Affairs ministry.
Shinui presented itself as centrist on security issues.[24]
In July 2004, a tape recording of Shinui MK andMinister of InfrastructureYosef Paritzki was exposed byAyala Hasson. 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 theworkers' union of Israel'sPower 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 MinisterAriel 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.
In August 2004, Sharon initiated coalition negotiations with several other parties after he lost the government majority required to support hisdisengagement 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 (UTJ). 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.
On 1 December 2004, Shinui voted against Sharon's 2005 budget, which included subsidies to UTJ projects.[25] In response, Sharon fired the Shinui ministers from the cabinet. On 10 January 2005, Labor joined the coalition, replacing Shinui. However, the party continued to support the disengagement andFinance MinisterBinyamin Netanyahu's financial reforms. Following its departure from the government, the party formed aShadow cabinet[26] and was renamedShinui – Party for the Secular and the Middle Class.
In June 2005,Poraz was confronted by party activists who accused him and Lapid of dictatorial control of the party, and was recorded by them offering vacation flights out of the country and other financial favours. The tape reachedMaariv, which at the time was running its "Where is the Shame" anti-corruption campaign led by its editorAmnon Dankner and top columnistDan 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 criticizedLapid 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 theelections that year. In a surprise result,Ron Levintal beatPoraz 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, andRoni Brizon) 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.[27][28] By then, a total of eleven MKs had left Shinui and formed a new party, the Secular Faction (later renamedHetz), led byPoraz and supported byLapid. AfterYigal Yasinov also left the party, Shinui was left with only two MKs,Ehud Rassabi andIlan Leibovitch.
Before the elections, Levintal made several conciliatory gestures toward Hetz, attempting negotiations with them, the anti-corruptionTafnit party led byUzi Dayan, and former Prime MinisterEhud 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.
The party did not run in the2009 Knesset elections, and has not run in any subsequent national elections. It participated in combination with other parties, however, in the 2008 municipal elections in Haifa (led by Shlomo Gilboa), and won two seats.[29] Shinui also participated in Tel Aviv-Yafo under the name Tel Avivim (led by Ron Levintal), but did not win any seats.
In 2012, Tommy Lapid's son,Yair Lapid, formedYesh Atid, a secularist, centrist, liberal Zionist party that won 19 seats in the2013 Knesset elections, making it the Knesset's second-largest party, and 11 seats in the2015 Knesset elections. Yesh Atid is widely considered to be in the same tradition as Shinui, and has largely absorbed its electoral base.
Despite nearly 30 years of public support ofliberal-capitalist economic and social policies, its best known platform plank is a call for separation ofreligion andstate within the confines of Zionist ideology. It demandscivil marriage (although it has opposed a bill to enact it in March 2004), the operation ofpublic transportation, businesses, theaters, etc., onShabbat, removal of laws concerning selling and importing non-kosher food, drafting of ultra-Orthodox Jews into theIDF, and a halt to payments toyeshiva students.
Because of such demands, and the inflammatory tone of its current leadership, it was sometimes accused of beinganti-religious or hating the religious, and so, some, including manysecular people who would otherwise agree with its platform, would not vote for it. The party's official position was 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.
Shinui supportedgay rights,[30] and conforming to its liberal orientation, Shinui adopted a unanimous resolution to create an in-party forum forgay,lesbian,bisexual, andtransgender people.
Economically, Shinui supported afree market,privatization of public assets, and a lowering of taxes, especially taxes on theupper class. The party also objected to the introduction of aprogressiveestate tax.
Shinui's position onIsraeli–Palestinian conflict was in accord with the mainstream centrist consensus. It supported achieving peace with the Palestinians even at the cost of territorial concessions. Shinui also supported the anti-terrorist policies ofAriel Sharon's government, such as the killing ofHamas leaderAhmed Yassin.
Shinui supported negotiation with the Palestinians concerning the final status and a Palestinian state, which would include removal ofIsraeli settlements and withdrawal from most of theWest Bank andGaza. It asserted that both the Right and Left misled the public - the Right by claiming that only force will solve the problem, and the Left by claiming that there is a Palestinian partner forpeace.
Shinui strongly supported theIsraeli West Bank barrier and the disengagement plan.
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 saw itself as an antithesis toShas, 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 byShas). Shinui also frequently praised theSupreme Court of Israel as a guardian of the law and moral values.
| Leader | Took office | Left office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | .jpg) | Amnon Rubinstein | 1974 | 1996 |
| 2 |  | Avraham Poraz | 1996 | 1999 |
| 3 | .jpg) | Tommy Lapid | 1999 | 2006 |
| 4 | Ron Levintal | 2006 | ||
| Election | Leader | Lead candidate | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Amnon Rubinstein | Part ofDash | 7 / 120 | New | Government | ||
| 1981 | Amnon Rubinstein | 29,837 | 1.5 (#9) | 2 / 120 |  5 | Opposition | |
| 1984 | 54,747 | 2.7 (#7) | 3 / 120 |  1 | Government | ||
| 1988 | 39,538 | 1.7 (#12) | 2 / 120 | 1 | Opposition | ||
| 1992 | Part ofMeretz | 2 / 120 |  0 | Government | |||
| 1996 | 2 / 120 | 0 | Opposition | ||||
| 1999 | Avraham Poraz | Tommy Lapid | 167,748 | 5.0 (#6) | 6 / 120 | 6 | Opposition |
| 2003 | Tommy Lapid | 386,535 | 12.28 (#3) | 15 / 120 | 9 | Government | |
| 2006 | Ron Levintal | Ron Levintal | 4,675 | 0.16 (#19) | 0 / 120 | 15 | Extraparliamentary |
| 2009 | Did not contest | 0 / 120 | 0 | Extraparliamentary | |||
| 2013 | Did not contest | 0 / 120 | 0 | Extraparliamentary | |||
| 2015 | Did not contest | 0 / 120 | 0 | Extraparliamentary | |||
| April 2019 | Did not contest | 0 / 120 | 0 | Extraparliamentary | |||
| September 2019 | Did not contest | 0 / 120 | 0 | Extraparliamentary | |||
| 2020 | Did not contest | 0 / 120 | 0 | Extraparliamentary | |||
| 2021 | Did not contest | 0 / 120 | 0 | Extraparliamentary | |||
| 2022 | Did not contest | 0 / 120 | 0 | Extraparliamentary | |||
It was a reform party advocating a written constitution, civil rights, flexibility in negotiations with Palestinians, a free economy with progressive taxation, improved public behavior of politicians, and law and order.
Campaigning on an anti-clerical, anti-corruption
In 1992, it joined with two other left-wing Zionist parties (Mapam and CRM) to form the Meretz/Democratic Israel coalition that won 12 Knesset seats and joined Rabin's Labor-led coalition. Prior to the May 1999 Knesset election, Shinui broke away from Meretz, and sought to redefine itself as a centrist party.
Shinui became a member of the Liberal International in 1986.
Further afield, the Israeli political landscape changed in the 1980s and 1990s, again affecting LI membership: the progressive liberal party, Shinui, joined LI at the 1986 Hamburg Congress;...
The Liberal International is thinking of expelling the Israel Liberal Party and admitting another Israeli party, Shinui, in its place. This is due less to the sorry bickering within the Israeli party than to the Liberals' alliance with the right-wing Herut party in the Likud bloc, and its almost total acceptance of Herut's hawkish policies, which are frequently criticized by Liberal parties in other western countries. Shinui is a small dovish party which belongs to the national unity government; it is allied with the Labor Alignment and is critical of the Likud. Shinui has a strong record on human rights and is opposed to what it perceives as religious coercion. On economic issues it is right wing. It favors compulsory arbitration of labor disputes in key industries and services and is opposed to restrictive practices by trade unions. By and large, Shinui is seen by the Liberal International as more faithful to traditional liberal values. The chairman of the Shinui party secretariat, Gideon Erhardt, says that when his party applied for membership of the International, only the Israel Liberal Party opposed the application. He says Liberal parties in most western countries were favorably inclined to Shinui. The Liberal Party delegate accused Shinui of harming the country's image in the international arena.
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