Labor, Meretz refuse PM’s offer to join coalition

Following Tuesday’s deadly terror attack in a Jerusalem synagogue, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an offer to most opposition parties to join his coalition and form a wide-ranging unity government, according to Israeli media reports. Left-wing Labor and Meretz have refused the proposal outright, but ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism have yet to give their response.

The offer was made via Likud MK and coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin to all opposition parties not affiliated with the Arab community — including Labor, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Meretz and Kadima — with a suggestion to join what he called a “Jewish unity government.”

The opposition’s Labor party turned down the offer, with leader Isaac Herzog saying “Unity and solidarity are always important and all the more so at this time, but the Labor party will not be a member of a government whose policy does not offer security and hope to the people of Israel.

“The Labor party is an ideological and governmental alternative, and must be at the forefront of Israeli leadership because we need to create change here, and fast,” Herzog said. Labor, he concluded, “has no business [taking part] in a government led by Netanyahu and Likud.”

Meretz leader Zahava Gal-on was similarly unimpressed with the unity overtures, and hinted that Netanyahu only made the offer to score political points.

“The consensus surrounding the denunciation of terror and the war on terror goes without saying,” she said in a statement. “But this cannot be a reason to help a government that only pours fuel onto the fire, and which blocks every attempt to end the hatred and the violence.

“It’s a shame that the vile terror attack is being used for the purposes of cynical political manipulations,” she said. She added that even from the opposition, Meretz would support the prime minister if he should genuinely sue for peace with Palestinians.

Shas and UTJ, meanwhile, have yet to respond to the premier’s offer, with Shas saying in a statement that it would consider the idea.

Prior to Tuesday’s attack, Netanyahu’s coalition government was going through rough times, with infighting over stalled bills threatening to bring down the government and bring about early elections.

Finance Minister and Yesh Atid party chief Yair Lapid has been trying to push through a controversial tax-free home purchase bill, which his party defines as a make-or-break move for Yesh Atid’s continued participation in the coalition. That effort took a hit when Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman pushed off a committee vote Monday.

Meanwhile, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the hawkish Jewish Home party, warned that if a bill to define Israel by law as a Jewish state did not pass, “there will be no coalition.”

It was not clear what effect, if any, Tuesday’s terror attack would have on the squabbling coalition partners.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.