Is this the solution to ‘angry’ politics?
Centrist politics is the focus of an anthology of essays collated by British-Israeli political adviser Yair Zivan.
The Western world is caught in a political maelstrom. Britain has a new government, election fever rules America and France, while in Israel… well, there is always talk of elections in Israel, but now, more than ever.
Fortunately, for those confused about choices across the spectrum, there is a magnificent primer: a new anthology of insightful essays, edited and collated by British-Israel political adviser Yair Zivan. The Centre Must Hold offers thoughtful ideas about centrist politics, with essays from former prime ministers such as Tony Blair, Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull and former Israeli premier Yair Lapid — to one-time New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and our own Baroness Anderson (Ruth Smeeth as was) who now heads the influential Index on Censorship. Zivan, brought up in Leicester, served as spokesman for the late Israeli president Shimon Peres and is now Yair Lapid’s senior foreign policy adviser, one of his closest associates.
Speaking to Jewish News at JW3 for the UK book launch, Zivan said that he had begun thinking about the book in the aftermath of the November 2022 Israeli election — which the Lapid-led coalition lost.
“It’s not the first time I’ve been on the losing side in an election,” Zivan says ruefully, “but it was the first time when I was in government.”
And this time Lapid and his co-prime minister Naftali Bennett had lost to what Zivan terms “a very right-wing, religiously conservative coalition”. The sense of loss was all the greater. But he began thinking about the essence of centrist politics, which he believes offers a sensible and pragmatic alternative to extremist positions on both left and right. He and the publishers agreed to finalise his proposed collection of essays by the end of summer 2023.
In fact, Zivan spent the week between Succot and Simchat Torah making the final edits. “I sent the manuscript on Friday 6 October. And then I woke up on 7 October to a different world.”
Adding another layer to the necessity for the book, Zivan notes, was the fact that “on October 8, we looked around and the government had disappeared. Politicians who were happy to make headlines didn’t want that any more, and the politicians that we needed for the basic tasks of managing this crisis simply weren’t there.”
For several months, while Zivan himself was on reserve duty in the IDF spokesman’s office, there was almost no engagement with the book. Eventually, as the anthology was being readied for publication, he contacted the writers of the 36 essays to ask if they wanted to change the content in the light of 7 October. Almost nobody, except the American business leader Daniel Lubetzky, who rewrote part of his contribution (and Zivan himself, who amended his essay), changed their submissions.
The core argument in the book — from every writer — is that there is such a thing as centrist politics, which offers the opportunity of good governance and a realistic alternative to the often hysterical positions of left or right. Zivan says the image should be that of a horseshoe — “where the centre is holding, and against which other positions should be measured. The danger is of the centre right or centre left pandering to the fringes. You can’t moderate populists.”
He has previously acknowledged the great help in networking given to him by Tony Blair and Yair Lapid, suggesting people for him to approach who might like to be included in the book. “But really, I was pushing at an open door,” he says. “People liked the idea and actively wanted to contribute. Nobody even raised the possibility of pulling out after 7 October,” he says.
Though he tends not to comment on the politics of other countries, Zivan notes that in Britain, Labour, “which went to the fringes of the left, lost. The Labour Party which took itself back to the political centre is on its way to winning a substantial majority [we were speaking before 4 July], because that’s where the majority of the public wants their policies to be. People want politics that are responsible, that are effective and pragmatic. They don’t expect to agree with everything — but they want to know that the people they are voting for are serious, and care about them and their issues.”
At the heart of The Centre Must Hold is Zivan’s firm belief in trusting the electorate. He says that if centrist politicians fail to convince voters, the fault is theirs, not the voting public’s. And he insists that centrists need to listen to real grievances about race and immigration, and not brush them aside.
What can practically be offered as a solution, however, differs with every issue. But Zivan’s watchword, and that of many of the contributors to the anthology, is ‘compromise’. “Look,” he says: “If I have a 51 percent majority and I can push a policy through with no changes, or I can make some changes and get broader support – I will choose the second option.”
There are two parts to the situation, Zivan says: “There’s winning, and then there’s governing. The challenge is that after you win, you have to deliver.” He maintains that the Lapid–Bennett coalition “did more in 18 months than its successor — just ask Israeli civil servants. The current government was a disaster before 7 October, and has been much worse since.”
Zivan has high hopes for the impact of the book and warns of the dangers of polarisation and extremism, “which we cannot afford. They undermine our ability to manage the really complicated problems which face countries today.”
Perhaps one of the most piquant stories in the book is in Zivan’s own essay, A Centrist Approach to Foreign Policy. In it, he outlines the founding of the Negev Forum, an initiative of Yair Lapid’s in 2022, consisting of representatives from Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain and the USA. Zivan writes: “The inaugural Negev Summit was put together through a series of direct phone calls between the foreign ministers. The usual diplomatic channels would have taken months. The negotiations over protocol would have derailed the whole thing… we arranged for all the delegations to stay in the same hotel, in the desert, far away from distractions, and on the opening night planned a dinner for the six foreign ministers alone, no staff, no protocol, no interruptions. That set the tone.”
to angry politics the world over — together with the promise of that elusive thing, hope.
The Centre Must Hold is published by Elliott and Thompson Books at £20
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