Labour rules itself out of coalition…

ISRAEL’s main centre-left party, Labour, will refuse to join a Benjamin Netanyahu-led government after the election, its leader has declared.

The alliance between Netanyahu’s Likud Party and the further-right Yisrael Beitenu is expected to win the January 22 ballot, but it will need other parties to form the coalition, and there was widespread speculation that Labour may join.

Labour leader Shelly Yachimovich has now quashed the rumours, saying: “There are only two possibilities. Either the Labour Party under my leadership forms the government, or we will lead the opposition.”

She claimed that Likud-Beitenu is “taking things to an extreme”, with politicians on its list who are widely considered hard right. She was referring to Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman and Likud’s Moshe Feiglin, who strongly believes that Netanyahu is too dovish.

Feiglin’s campaign manager Shmuel Sackett responded by claiming in an interview with The AJN that Yachimovich is bluffing. “I believe she will join the coalition, because in Israel you’re worth nothing in opposition,” he said, adding that he suspects she is “just flexing her muscles”.

Sackett criticised Yachimovich’s claim that Likud’s list is too extreme, saying: “Likud is a democratic party and selected its Knesset list in democratic fashion … She has to accept democratic processes of Israel.”

Parties to Labour’s left responded positively to Yachimovich’s declaration, but continued their attack on her for making Labour too centrist, with especially bitter reactions from Meretz. Alon-Lee Green, spokesman for the left-wing, Jewish-Arab Hadash Party told The AJN of Labour’s move: “We think it’s generally a good step given the prospect of a right-wing coalition, but it’s not enough. The only way to block the right-wing coalition is to form a united block of the Jewish-Arab left.”

… but others less emphatic

LABOUR’S pledge to stay out of the Netanyahu government was followed by less emphatic promises from the other two centre-left parties which look likely to win Knesset seats: Yesh Atid and the Tzipi Livni Party.

Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid posted on his Facebook wall: “To all who have asked, we will not be a fifth wheel in a government comprising of Shas and the extreme right.”

He was saying that if Netanyahu takes the most likely route to obtaining a Knesset majority, by forming a coalition with Yisrael Beitenu, the religious-Zionist Jewish Home, and the Charedi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, then he would refuse to join.

But he indicated that he might be prepared to join if either Labour or the Tzipi Livni Party did too. He said that “perhaps” a moderate government could emerge.

Tzipi Livni, head of the eponymous party (which is also known as The Movement) made a similar promise, saying of the centre-left, “None of the parties in the bloc can enter the government alone.”

Netanyahu has responded by saying that he is keen to form a centrist coalition, but it is the centrist parties who are pushing him into the arms of the right. “Whoever wants to join a coalition based on my principles is welcome. In the meantime they are the ones that are rejecting me,” he told Channel 2.

Netanyahu said in the interview that his top priorities if he forms the next government will be “handling the housing issue, changing the electoral system and equalising the service burden”. ‏

The three centre-left parties held meetings this week to discuss the possibility of acting together to withhold support from Netanyahu and block him from being able to build a coalition after the election. They released a statement afterwards saying that they “discussed the dangers inherent in a radical government”, but they did not reach any formal agreements.

NATHAN JEFFAY

Labour leader Shelly Yachimovich.

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