Yossi Sarid

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Yossi Sarid

Yossi Sarid (in Hebrew יוסי שריד) (born October 24, 1940) is a left-wing Israeli news commentator and former politician. Sarid was a Knesset member of Meretz-Yachad party 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.

[edit] Political career

Sarid was a media aide to Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. He was also a protege of Pinchas Sapir.
First joined the Knesset in 1973 (the 8^th Assembly), with the Israeli Labour Party.
In 1984 when Labor agreed to serve in a national unity government with the 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 - the social democrat left wing party of Israel.
During the 1992 elections, Meretz won 12 seats and entered Itzhak Rabin's coalition. Sarid received the Environment ministry ( המשרד לאיכות הסביבה ).
In 1996 Yossi Sarid overthrew Shulamit Aloni and became the leader of Meretz. Since then, Sarid and Aloni seem to have developed an increasing dislike for each other.
In 1999 Meretz won 10 seats and Sarid vowed not to sit with Mizrahi-Haredi party Shas in the infamous "read my lips" speech. However, Labor prime-minister Ehud Barak insisted on joining Shas to the government and persuaded Sarid to sit with Shas by giving him the ministry 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 party and promised Bronfman reserved 5^th place in Meretz's Knesset list.
In the elections of 2003 Meretz won only 6 seats and popular figures such as Ilan Gil'on, Yoav Kreem and Musi Raz stayed out of the Knesset. Yossi Beilin wasn't elected either.
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 Beilin merged into Yachad. Beilin defeated Meretz's socialist 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 Beillin's leadership than they had under Sarid's, Sarid wrote in Ha'aretz that the party no longer had a reason to exist as a separate entity and should merge with the Labor Party.