Opposition leader (Machane Tzioni) told participants in his party-sponsored Motzei Shabbos Yitzchak Rabin memorial rally that he will no longer renter into talks with the current administration towards forming a national unity government.

The annual event at Rabin Square was canceled after organizers could not raise the necessary funding. Herzog was quick to announce his party would sponsor an alternative event, and he did.

Herzog used the forum to accuse Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of declaring war on democracy with his policies, promising participants the days of trying to reach a national unity agreement with Likud are in the past. This may be true but according to all polls, Mr. Herzog’s party will be decimated in the next Knesset elections, with the latest Israel Radio poll showing his party dropping from its current 24 seats to 13. Other polls are even less favorable.

As has become the tradition, the event had less to do with memorializing the assassinated the late prime minister and more to do with attacking the right-wing wing, Likud and PM Netanyahu.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)