Regardless of political orientation of the current chief of the Labor Party Shelly Yachimovich, many Israelis see her as one of the most fascinating figures in the forthcoming Israeli general election, planned to be held on Tuesday.

The former journalist, who has sensitivity to the hardships of ordinary people, became a politician whose fight for the average Israeli topped her agenda.

Despite lack of experience in security matters and management, she will most likely lead the second-largest Israeli party following the Jan. 22 elections.

Yachimovich, 52, was born to a couple of holocaust survivors who immigrated to Israel from Poland and resided in Ramat Hasharon, a suburb town about 10 km from Tel Aviv.

Her father was a construction worker and her mother a teacher. They resided in a hard-working immigrant's neighborhood, which contributed to her awareness of social classes and divides.

"I was five years old when I kicked our neighbor after he kicked a street cat," she recalled in an interview with Ha'aretz in 2011.

"I was 13 when I refused to enter the class and take part of home economic classes, because the teacher said it was a woman's job to clean, iron and cook. I told her I planned a more interesting future for myself," she said.

She also got in trouble during her high school years for calling her principal a "tyrant" and she was expelled and studied in a boarding school.

Her father, a Marxist, and influenced her social democratic view of the world, along with her passion for books and newspapers. She has repeatedly identified herself as a "feminist and a socialist."

After finishing her military service at the Israeli Air Force as an officer she studied psychology and sociology at the Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva.

She started working as a local correspondent in the south for a national newspaper called Al Hamishmar (on guard), and then moved to more mainstream outlets like Israel Radio, where she hosted several shows as well as Army Radio.

As a journalist, she put at the front socio-economic matters even at a time when it was not popular. She did not shy away from demonstrating her views and was appreciated for her distinct thoughts and opinions.

She became a household name by the beginning of 2000, as she moved to the popular Channel 2 news team.

Shelly entered into the mainstream media notions that were highlighted in the recent bout of social justice protests like illicit connections between business moguls and politicians, the unjust divide of resources in the country and the growing gaps between the rich and the poor.

Shelly quit journalism and entered politics in 2005, with the victory of socialist Member of Parliament Amir Peretz as the chief of the Labor Party. She was placed ninth in the party's roster in 2005 and then fifth during the 2008 inner elections.

She became one of the most prominent Knesset members in the history of the institution, with more than 42 laws legislated and many celebrated fights on behalf of middle-class citizens.

Some of her major successful battles have been curbing the high rates of royalties tycoons receive for gas discoveries and the fight against the privatization of state lands and the jail authority, among others.

Another celebrated rule she has made, in light of the difficult working conditions for cashiers, was the right to sit while working.

She also issued a law regulating the operation of lobbyists in the Knesset.

Yachimovich impressed the political sphere for her hard work. She used her knowledge of the media to build a political-media empire. She used the internet as a tool to get citizens more involved in legislative procedures by uploading controversial provisions of rules pertaining to ordinary citizens on her website.

She won the prime position at the party in September 2011. Her main accomplishment, however, is considered to be the revival of the dusty Labor party.

The Labor Party was for many years the uncontested ruling party of Israel, and had no rivals until 1977.

In the past two decades, the Labor party has been criticized as ostracized for its stagnation, offering no real news or new leaders to the Israeli politics, except for the same old faces.

Many political analysts said that Yachimovich, who rejuvenated the party with young politicians, several of whom are also ex- journalists while others were among the leaders of the social justice movement, has become so successful to her right recognition that the public is not interested in socio-economic topics that she has been pursuing throughout her career, rather than diplomatic and security needs.

Despite her focus in the socio-economic affairs, she has completely left out the diplomatic aspect, meaning specifically the Palestinian issue and settlements. Meantime, her movement represents a bigger-scale movement of the Israeli left as a whole to the center of the map.

"I've joined politics because I'm sick and tired of the kind of left-wing notions that are completely based on automatically objecting to war and the occupation. I know the army is an important part of the Israeli society to which I'm bound to. I'm in favor of criticism but I am a Zionist at the same time," she said in an interview with Ari Shavit from Ha'aretz in 2009.

"For the left, it's easier to identify with the hardships of the Palestinians in the territories than the hardships of your upstairs neighbor who's beaten to death by her husband or the homeless guy lying there under their window. It engages you less. You think you're a good left-winger for supporting the Palestinians while you don't see the atrocities within your own society. It's a dominant phenomenon and it's very difficult to me, " she said.

Yachimovich did read well the murmurings of many in the Israeli public. The fact of the matter is that being called a "left-winger " resounded with only one meaning, targeting peace with the Palestinians, has to do with the agenda in the Israeli country.

"Of course we need a peace deal with the Palestinians, but these things are granted," Yachimovich said during another interview in 2011, pointing out her acceptance of Bill Clinton's peace proposal based on the 1967 border lines and with Israel keeping in the settlement blocks where more than 80 percent of them reside.

But whereas several left-wingers charge that the peace and end of occupation in the West Bank will bring the socioeconomic reforms she longs for, she thinks the order should be reversed.

"I believe, with every fiber of my being, that the socio- economic agenda would bring peace along as well," she told Globes in 2011.

"Everywhere there's poverty and major gaps, there'll be racism and nationalist," Yachimovich added.

As for the settlers, Yachimovich does not support them, but refuses to see them as enemies.

She acknowledges the occupation and the settlements have caused "deep suffering for both sides of the dispute." But at the same time, she believes that the heart of the settlers was in the right place.

She has been criticized for not talking about the Palestinian issue in order to get broader support from more right-wing and conservative voters and create a broader support base for her and her party among the Israeli public.

Yachimovich, who has operated on her own for the past few years, has been voted more popular than her own country in one of the recently published surveys.

She vowed not to sit in a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has managed to transform the socioeconomic demands of the social justice movement into a political framework.

Whatever would be the outcome on Jan. 23, Yachimovich had already had her share of victories in the Israeli politics.