Political commentator and strategic consultant Ronen Tzur said Wednesday night that he is quitting the Democrats party primary. Speaking Thursday morning on Radio 103FM, he said several incidents showed him the merger of Labor and Meretz was becoming much more radical than he had ever seen in those parties, and that the party was drifting toward positions he associated with Ofer Cassif and Hadash.
Tzur also addressed the controversy over candidate Nimrod Sheffer. He said Sheffer had appeared on Drorer's program and spoke condescendingly about him, claiming that Tzur comes from public relations and uses negative campaigns. Tzur then said the episode exposed the “fake purity” behind Sheffer’s image and called it “fraud.” He described receiving a text message criticizing Sheffer as “a punch to the stomach,” adding that he had written only that he disagreed with his fellow candidate, and that getting an SMS like that was not his style.
The dispute began earlier in the week, when thousands of texts were sent to party members describing Sheffer as “an extreme leftist who grovels before those who justify October 7.” The wording resembled criticism Tzur had previously made of Sheffer, creating the impression that the negative campaign came from Tzur’s own camp. It later emerged that the messages were sent by Sheffer’s personal spokesman.
After the exposure, allegations surfaced that the operation was intended to make members think the messages came from Tzur and turn them against him. Sheffer later apologized and accepted responsibility, saying one of the texts sent during the primary came from his team but was written to look as if it were meant to attack him, and that it echoed Tzur’s own messages and was therefore linked to Tzur. He added that this was not the kind of politics he wanted to bring and that not knowing about the move did not absolve him, because the responsibility was entirely his.
