It now appears highly unlikely that Labor Party leader Shelley Yacimovich will change her mind and agree to enter the coalition. Labor’s willingness to enter the coalition would have opened the door for the chareidi parties as well, and it would have left Yesh Atid and Bayit Yehudi out in the cold, or at least with the realization their bargaining position has been significantly weakened.
Chareidi interests aside, it appears that Laborites are now more or less convinced that Yacimovich is determined to remain in opposition, having stated on numerous occasions that the economic policies of a Netanyahu-led administration as simply untenable from her socialist point of view. She has stated it is not a personal issue with Netanyahu, but one of hashkafa.
Party veterans include Yitzchak Herzog and Eitan Cabel are already studying the party charter to determine if they can use the clause permitting an election loss to call early primaries in an effort to oust Yacimovich from her leadership post. It would appear that the fact she more than tripled the party’s size in the election is irrelevant since she is unwilling to enter the coalition.
The rumors of an imminent revolution surface amid reports that in his last meeting with Yacimovich, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered Labor six cabinet posts, but she declined. The prime minister realizes her dilemma regarding his capitalist agenda and has included control of the treasury in the offer, but Yacimovich declined. The prime minister added Knesset speaker to the list, but Yacimovich is clinging to her campaign promise – not to enter into a coalition headed by Netanyahu due to his unacceptable economic policies. The news of the cabinet positions offered along with Knesset speaker appears to have sparked efforts to oust her as the party leader.
Yacimovich told the media on Monday that she has received dozens of requests, pleas and prayers to enter the coalition, but she is preparing for opposition.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
If this report is accurate then it brands Yachimovich as a person of principle… and therefore unacceptable to her party leadership.
Since her rise to the head of her party I’ve been saying that she is the biggest danger to the right in Israel, but that we can probably rely on her own party to bring her down.
Shelly isn’t so dumb. The Likud-Lapid-Bennett coalition will alienate not only the Hareidim (making them into potentials coalition partners of the Labor party after the next election), but also many working class Sefardi Likudniks who favor a populist agenda that is an anathma to Lapid and his ilk, but is music to the ears of socialists.
While small parties may aim for patronage, Labor aims to return to power. The expulsion of the Hareidim from the “natural alliance” with the “Right” offers her an opportunity not worth missing; the Hareidim are economic populists, pro-welfare state and anti-conscription (as are her Arab friends) – and if the Hareidim are supporting a future Labor government, one that abolished conscription, the Hareidi presence may make it possible to accept support from the Arab parties. She’s brought the Labor party back from the brink of extinction, and is aiming to contest Likud for control – and being “Rosh Oppositsia” furthers that.
Labor is maneuvering the way a respectable, mature parliamentary party is supposed to.
Netanyahu really tried very hard to bring the Chareidi parties in and intends to do so in the future.
“Cheap shots” certainly is the improper way to retain the esteem that he obviously holds for the religious parties.
Shas, unfortunately, still is a sectoral party in its adolescence.
I am forced to agree with those whom I otherwise have little or nothing in common, to my consternation.
UTJ must act with the propriety that is expected of them [vis a vis the Likud].
(e.g. After Begin was elected PM, he was scheduled to visit Washington and meet with President Carter. There was one problem: the meeting was scheduled for the nine days, when we are told to avoid court cases with non-Jews because of the bad mazel of those days. Begin asked Rabbi Porush to ask HaRav Shach whether the warning about the nine days applied to his having an official meeting with the U.S. President. HaRav Shach answered that the warning about the mazel of the nine days only applies to an individual, not the community, and he said that Begin should go. But, “Before he speaks with the President, he should read through Parshas Vayishlach.” Begin thanked Rabbi Porush and told him, “Menachem I want you to know I am not [only] a maamin be’emunah sheleimah; I am a meimen be’eminohshleimah.” (Putting a spin on the pronunciation, Begin switched from Hebrew to Yiddish – using his inflection to signal to Rabbi Porush that he wasn’t merely dati [at heart]. He identified as a heimishe Yid.))