"It's proof that the 'Peace Now' slogan is alive and kicking. Even if the right wing is using it."
By TOVAH LAZAROFForange is back 88(photo credit: )
Twist the famous left-wing slogan "Peace Now" toward the right and you get one of the newest hybrids in Israeli politics - "Orange Now."
The slogan appeared among the glossy election banners unveiled by the National Union on Tuesday.
National Union star strategist Ethan Dor-Shav, who came up with the slogan, said he wanted to show that Peace Now was in the past and what was needed now, and for the future, was the orange settlers movement.
"We need the orange voters to appear now. Israel can't afford to forget the disengagement. These elections need to be about that agenda," he told The Jerusalem Post.
Former Peace Now spokesman Yariv Oppenheimer, who is running in the Labor Party for a seat in the upcoming Knesset, heard about the National Union's new slogan on his way to party headquarters in Tel Aviv.
"It was nice to hear. It's proof that the slogan, 'Peace Now,' is alive and kicking. If even the right wing is using it, they understand that it's effective," said Oppenheimer.
"But it won't help them," he added.
Orange is not the exclusive property of the right, said Oppenheimer, who is also using orange in his own personal election banner. "Today orange belongs to everyone, even to me."
Avner Shimoni, the former head of the Hof Aza Regional C ouncil, said the anti-disengagement campaign first adopted orange because it was the color of the council's flag. Some 30 years ago, when the flag was created, settlers chose orange to represent the sand and the sun of Gush Katif.
When it was first unvei led as the anti-disengagement color, the Arab party Balad tried to sue the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, claiming that orange was their color. Outside of Israel, it was also the color of those in the Ukraine who supported opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko in the 2004 elections.
Janet Aviad, one of the Peace Now founders, said the National Union's choice to use both orange and the phrase was surprising on two counts.
"I don't know if it will work for them," she said.
"Orange left a very sour or bitter taste in the eyes of most of the people in the country. It's associated with people who came close to violating the law or ignoring the majority's will," she said.
She also recalled how the Right had initially a ttacked her group because of the word "now" in their slogan. "The name turned on us like a golem. The right claimed it was an unrealistic desire," she said. They said the Left was wrong for wanting things too quickly and not taking the longer, more patien t view.gm
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