Amid ongoing negotiations to enter the coalition government, there is division among senior Machane Tzioni party officials. Party leader Yitzchak Herzog is reportedly willing to enter the coalition, but senior party officials including Tzipi Livni and Shelly Yacimovich remain adamantly opposed to the move.

For one thing, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has not even offered to amend the coalition guidelines, so in essence, all Machane Tzioni would receive is cabinet posts but it would signal selling out their voters and many party members feel they would pay the price at the polls in the next elections.

Reportedly, Herzog is continuing negotiations with PM Netanyahu but he does not represent the entire party.

Senior analysts add that PM Netanyahu is not even speaking about forming a “national unity coalition” for clearly this is not so. He is saying a “larger” and “more stable” coalition, explaining it is not national unity since the coalition guidelines are not being amended to accommodate the hashkafa of Machane Tzioni.

While it appears many or most faction members are not supporting Herzog’s move, he may follow a move carried out by Ehud Barak when he headed the former Labor party, simply entering the coalition and taking those faction members who back him along. This would lead to the forming of yet another political party.

It does appear that Herzog’s view signals he will not continue leading the opposition party following Machane Tzioni’s next election for party leader.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)