Herzog: No point joining coalition in its current makeup

“There would be no point to the Labor Party joining the [Netanyahu] coalition in its current makeup,” the newly elected Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog said Saturday, two days after his surprise win over outgoing chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich.

“If [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] makes a daring move toward peace — and I think this is a fateful time for this country… there’s a direct link between this [negotiations with the Palestinians] and Iran — if he does, I’ll be there to help him. All options are on the table. But we aren’t there now,” said Herzog, keeping up the ambiguity he first voiced early on Friday during his acceptance speech.

“I want to know where [negotiations with the Palestinians] are going first. [But] in its current form, it’s not logical that we would join the coalition. There would be no reason for it,” claimed the Labor party chairman during an interview with Channel 2 Saturday.

Herzog castigated the composition of the current coalition, blasting hawkish Likud MKs such as deputy ministers Danny Danon and Zeev Elkin, whom he said advanced “anti-democratic bills,” and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman who, he noted, recently suggested Israel develop alliances with other countries, following a very public clash with the United States over the emerging nuclear deal in Geneva between world powers and Iran.

“We have a foreign minister who says we should look for more allies? Who? Moldova? China? A country that consistently votes against us at the UN? It won’t happen,” said Herzog.

“We need new allies,” Liberman had said on Friday. “No alliance with any other country will come close to our alliance with the US, but a stronger Israel and a development of ties with others will benefit both [Israel and the United States].”

On Thursday, Herzog won the Labor Party primaries, defeating Yachimovich by a margin of 16 percent — some 3,000 votes — in an unexpected victory for the leadership of the long-embattled party.

“We will challenge the [Netanyahu] government until we reclaim the leadership [of the country],” said Herzog in his acceptance speech Friday morning.

“Today we started a path that will lead to the return of the Labor Party to the helm of the country, and we will win. The work has begun to return [this party] to its rightful place,” Herzog said.

“I absolutely see myself as a candidate for prime minister,” Herzog said Saturday.

Asked directly on Friday if he would join the ruling coalition, Herzog said: “I will serve as opposition leader. And I will meet with the prime minister when relevant… I have said before that if he makes a clear, daring step toward peace, I would be there. I stand by what I said.”

“We just got elected. This isn’t the time [to discuss a coalition]. Will all of you stop talking about it?” his spokeswoman told The Times of Israel Friday.

The question of whether Labor might join the government will be an early issue for the new leader. Yachimovich had refused the prime minister’s pleas to join him after January’s elections, promising instead to provide a Labor “safety net” from outside the coalition to ensure support for any peace moves with the Palestinians.