Yitzhak Mordechai represents a new party, without the depth of a historical movement or a block of habitual supporters. Therefore, more than is the case with the other candidates, his chances of being elected will depend on his personal qualities. Beyond that, he has to convince voters that he embodies a consensus, or at least a matrix of frustrations, which has been blocked in its attempts to find expression by the confrontational style, and historical baggage, of Labor and Likud.
Moderate appeal
Mordechai has a great deal going for him. His Kurdish origins, and his intense attachment to Jewish tradition, give him automatic appeal to many Sephardi voters, who would love to conquer the Ashkenazi establishment and see a Sephardi in charge, though naturally this is not sufficient in itself to win their support. His military background lends him credibility on security issues. He is firmly in favor of proceeding with implementation of the Oslo and Wye agreements, and formed good relations with Palestinian officials, yet he is someone on whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would find it hard to make a "leftist" label stick. He has also shown sensitivity on social issues. His image is that of a moderate, measured and cautious, not an original mind, perhaps, but honorable and decent.
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Yitzhak Mordechai was born in Iraq in 1944. He came to Israel in 1950. He is married, has two children, and lives in Motza, near Jerusalem.
Education
IDF Command & Staff College
British Army Staff School, Camberley, England
BA History, Tel Aviv University
MA Political Science, Haifa University
Incomplete Law studies, Bar-Ilan University
Military Career
Decorated for bravery in the Yom Kippur War
Chief Infantry & Paratroopers Officer 1983-86
OC Southern Command 1986
OC Central Command 1989-91
OC Northern Command 1991
Political Career
Member of Knesset since 1996
Minister of Defense 1996-99
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Oscillations
But there is another side to Yitzhak Mordechai, and some believe that it's the dominant one. He can certainly be touchy. His actions, it is claimed, are sometimes motivated by resentments from his military career, in which he held all three regional commands but failed to make it to Chief of Staff. Before joining the Likud party, he courted Labor, only turning to Likud when Shimon Peres refused to guarantee him a high place on the Labor Party list.
Now Mordechai has left the Likud, joining the Center Party, but only after being offered the party leadership. These oscillations could be the product of a real dilemma, but Mordechai seems vulnerable to charges of opportunism. At any rate, most people thought Netanyahu was right to dismiss him as Minister of Defense as his negotiations with the Center Party approached their conclusion.
Centrifugal Center Party
There are, moreover, disintegrating forces within the Center Party. Its other three leading lights, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Dan Meridor, and Roni Milo, all nurtured prime ministerial ambitions of their own, and may find it hard to subsume their egos, and their views, under the common cause. In particular, the issue of religion and state could pitch Milo, who advocates relaxation of religiosly inspired laws, and Meridor, for whom the rule of law is paramount, against Mordechai, a follower of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who has fanned the flames of ultra-orthodox mutiny against the Supreme Court.
Damage to Netanyahu - reversible?
For all that, there is no doubt that, in Mordechai, the Center Party chose the candidate with the widest possible appeal, the one who will take most votes away from Benjamin Netanyahu. The question is whether, if Mordechai does not make it to the second round, those votes will return to Netanyahu, or go all the way to Ehud Barak.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on February 17, 1999