Horowitz made a comeback this year, winning the Meretz primary after a four-year break from politics. The sometimes-journalist, sometimes-politician promised to negotiate partnerships for the far-left party to ensure its survival and entry to the next Knesset, and followed through, bringing in former prime minister Ehud Barak’s latest political project and then-Labor MK Stav Shaffir with the Greens.In general, Horowitz and the Democratic Union have presented themselves as the bulwarks against a wave of extremism that they describe as having the potential to drown out democracy and secular life, and to bring in the annexation of the West Bank.Horowitz has emphasized fighting the religious establishment, especially the perceived “religionization” of secular schools, which its campaign materials have referred to as “brainwashing by messianists.”Democratic Union also published a comprehensive environmental plan and has jumped on international events, like the fires in the Amazon rainforest, to promote it. They called the plan the “Green New Deal,” like the proposal by US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) that made news earlier this year.The third peg of the Democratic Union campaign is “the plan to defend democracy,” and takes advantage of Shaffir and Barak long being prominent voices against Netanyahu in light of the corruption accusations against him, as well as candidate Noa Rothman, granddaughter of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, speaking out against incitement.
