Following Herzog, Livni vows not to join coalition

Tzipi Livni, head of the Hatnua party and number two on the Zionist Union party list led by Isaac Herzog, said Saturday that she would not sit in a governing coalition headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and vowed that she would not make any move to “strengthen” the Israeli leader.

Livni was justice minister in the last Netanyahu government, and was responsible for peace talks with the Palestinians. Netanyahu fired her and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who was finance minister, in early December and called new elections.

“Our mission is to be in the opposition,” Livni told Channel 2 Saturday, two days after Herzog also said he would not join the new coalition. “I would not do a thing to strengthen Netanyahu, his way [of doing things], or his coalition,” she said.

Livni criticized the prime minister for deals made with the parties that make up his incoming 61-seat coalition government — Kulanu, Jewish Home, United Torah Judaism and Shas — charging that “the idea that after elections, it’s decided who to tempt to join the coalition, is unacceptable to me.”

“Netanyahu’s policies are bad for Israel… He strengthens the feeling of national victimhood [among Israelis] and his own personal feelings of being a victim. And this is why we saw him call for [Israelis] to save him,” she said. “He bases his world view — and has reinforced it in the public — on the idea that the whole world is against us [Israel], that we are a nation that walks alone and that’s why he needs to have more political powers. On a personal level, he turned against the media and the Supreme Court because they oppose him.”

Netanyahu has had shaky relations with the Israeli media over the years, especially the privately run Channel 10 and the left-wing Haaretz newspaper. There have also been reports that he would support, or at least not prevent, legislation to curtail the Supreme Court’s powers. The incoming justice minister, Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked, is expected to take up that bill, though it is not clear it would gain a Knesset majority.

On Thursday, opposition head Herzog said he had no intention of joining Netanyahu’s fledgling narrow coalition, and called on Netanyahu to announce that he had failed to form a government.

“I have no intention of joining this government. I’ve said it again and again, and will repeat it in both English and Italian if need be,” Herzog told Channel 2 News. “I’ll be in the opposition and I’ll lead it.”

“This government is dangerous,” Herzog continued, acknowledging that his refusal to join the coalition could lead to new elections, but that it was unavoidable because of his “national responsibility.” The prime minister, he charged, “acts out of his personal self-interest.”

Earlier on Thursday, Likud officials confirmed that Netanyahu was hoping to expand his coalition to include the Zionist Union slate in a broad unity government. One party official told Israel Radio that Netanyahu was keeping the Foreign Ministry portfolio for himself in the hopes of later handing the top cabinet post to Herzog, should he manage to cajole Zionist Union into joining the coalition in the coming weeks.

Likud and Zionist Union denied reports last week that Netanyahu had offered Herzog the post of deputy prime minister and other senior positions for Zionist Union if it joined his coalition without Livni.

Netanyahu himself hinted at efforts to expand his coalition when he announced his newly formed government Wednesday night. “Sixty-one seats is a good number. Sixty-one-plus is a better number. But it starts with 61, and we will begin with that,” he said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”