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Yossi Sarid
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Yossi Sarid (born 24 October 1940) is a left-wing Israeli news commentator and former politician. Sarid was member of the Meretz-Yachad party in the Knesset until he withdrew from politics shortly before the 2006 elections.
Sarid holds a Master's degree in Political Science from New School for Social Research, New York. He writes a weekly column for the daily, Haaretz, which during the 2006 political campaigns published his ongoing commentary on the Israeli political scene.
i Sarid lives in Moshav Margaliyot in the Upper Galilee.
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Encyclopedia
Yossi Sarid (born 24 October 1940) is a left-wing Israeli news commentator and former politician. Sarid was member of the Meretz-Yachad party in the Knesset until he withdrew from politics shortly before the 2006 elections.
Sarid holds a Master's degree in Political Science from New School for Social Research, New York. He writes a weekly column for the daily, Haaretz, which during the 2006 political campaigns published his ongoing commentary on the Israeli political scene.
Biography
Yossi Sarid lives in Moshav Margaliyot in the Upper Galilee. He is married to Dorit and has three children.
Political career
- Sarid was a media aide to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. He was also a protege of Pinhas Sapir.
- First joined the Knesset in 1973 (the 8th Knesset) as a member of the Alignment.
- In 1984 when the Alignment agreed to serve in a national unity government with Likud Sarid left the party, to join Ratz, headed by Shulamit Aloni.
- In 1992, Ratz merged with Amnon Rubinstein's Shinui, and Mapam to form Meretz - a social democrat party.
- In the 1992 elections, Meretz won 12 seats and entered Yitzhak Rabin's coalition. Sarid was appointed Minister of the Environment.
- In 1996 Sarid overthrew Shulamit Aloni and became the leader of Meretz.
- In 1999 Meretz won 10 seats and Sarid vowed not to sit with ultra-orthodox party Shas in the infamous "read my lips" speech. However, PM Ehud Barak insisted on joining Shas to the government and persuaded Sarid to sit with Shas by making him Minister of Education. Sarid explained the breaking of his vow in the need to promote the peace process.
- As an education minister Sarid allocated more resources to peripheral towns and received praise from their residents (which constitute the basis of support for the Likud and Shas parties).
- In 2000 Sarid resigned from the government and Meretz quit the coalition after failing to agree on authority to be given for Shas deputy minister of education.
- In 2003 Meretz was joined by former Labor members Yossi Beilin and Yael Dayan. Meretz merged with Roman Bronfman's Democratic Choice party and promised Bronfman 5th place in Meretz's Knesset list.
- In the elections of 2003 Meretz won only 6 seats and popular figures such as Ilan Gillon, Yoav Kreem and Musi Raz stayed out of the Knesset.
- Sarid resigned from the leadership of Meretz following the humiliating defeat in the 2003 elections. However, he remained an active Knesset member. He also served on the Knesset's "Security and Foreign Affairs Committee".
- In 2004, Meretz and Yossi Beilin's Shahar movement merged into Yachad. Beilin defeated Meretz's Ran Cohen and became the leader of Yachad until 2006.
- In 2005, prior to elections for the new Knesset, Sarid announced he would leave the Knesset and quit politics altogether.
- In 2006, shortly after the elections in which Meretz won an even smaller share of the vote under Beilin's leadership than they had under Sarid's, Sarid wrote in Haaretz that the party no longer had a reason to exist as a separate entity and should merge with the Labor Party.
Sarid has been a strong advocate for the recognition of the Armenian genocide. In a 2002 editorial in Haartz, Sarid goes into the complex political and psychological reasons for official Israeli government denial of the Armenian genocide.
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