A Woman's Own: Where is the 'Women for Livni' group?

On Tuesday, the National Organization of Women and five other feminist groups in the US announced the formation of "Women for Obama" to actively campaign for Obama. "We don't think it's much to break a glass ceiling for one woman and leave millions of women behind," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. In other words, Sarah Palin as VP may be good for Sarah Palin, but her policies on issues such as abortion, health care, and the environment will ultimately hurt many more.

This turn of events has gotten me asking myself, where are the "Women for Livni" groups?

There are none.

This is quite astounding in a way. I mean, today Israel is going to be receiving a new head of state, possibly a woman, possible the first woman in forty years, only the second one in all of Israeli history, and women - and men - are mostly quiet. The feeling is of, 'well, another day at the office'. Why is that?

One reason has nothing to do with gender. The civic apathy that cuts across the country is a direct function of the distorted political system. Sure, we're "getting" a new prime minister - exactly that way - but who is electing her? A total of 74,000 people? That's less than 1% of the population!

The electoral system continues to astound me with the lack of power it offers the people. The main source of corruption in the Israeli government is this: there is no direct representation, the people are powerless in choosing their leaders, and when politicians get elected, they have zero incentive to listen to the people. Knesset members are accountable only to one another to maintain their positions. There is no reason at all for "leaders" to heed the people.

Olmert has been the most glaring example of this warped phenomenon. How does a man with less than 5% approval rating, with hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for his resignation, stay in office for nearly three years? The answer is this - there may have been twice as many people calling for his resignation in Rabin square than all the Kadima members going to vote today, but it was those Kadima voters who put him in office and not the protesters. The protesters continue to be irrelevant.

The civic passivity engendered by a system that neuters its general populace can be seen across the board. But I think that Livni herself promotes a certain passivity as well. She has not spoken out for political reform, she has not spoken out for gender, and she has not even spoken out for herself. She sits there passively as Olmert defends her against attacks from Barak - in fact she appears to sits quietly next to Olmert all the time. Her entire body language is more often than not passive.

Certainly we admire her for not getting her hands "dirty", for not engaging in mudslinging. And the passivity has enabled her to survive in this system. But the result is that her constituency, if it exists, the people who really want her to be a clean alternative to Olmert, are sitting quietly on the sidelines. There isn't even a "Women for Livni" group. She could have come to women's groups around the country to speak, to inspire, to talk about social change and Israeli society. But she didn't. She could have rallied us up, gotten us excited, given women a voice, heard what we have to say about the country, given us hope. But she saw no reason to do that. The women are not electing her.

Livni is also a bit in denial about the entire gender thing. She has said that she doesn't want to be looked at as a woman. This is also why she has not been an active legislator on behalf of women's issues either. Just as women in the US are faced with the dilemma of choosing a woman versus choosing a candidate who is good for women, here too, the sense is that the woman candidate is not necessarily one who will be good for women. This, too, keeps women from being Livni's cheerleaders. Even if we do stand on street corners with posters for Livni, can we count on her to cheer for women once she becomes head of state? I'm not certain.

So we are getting a new head of State in Israel, possibly changing women's history, at least in the books.

But as long as women remain passive in the civic process, real social change will remain elusive.