Labor party members vote on whether to join Netanyahu-led government

Israel’s Labor party held a vote Sunday on a proposal to join a government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu despite repeated campaign promises to never sit with a prime minister facing criminal indictments.

The once-mighty left-wing party dominated Israeli politics for the country’s first three decades, but has since fallen to a historic low of three seats in the 120-member parliament. Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud is the largest faction, with 36.

Around 3,800 members of Labor’s central committee were eligible to vote electronically on party leader Amir Peretz’s proposal to join the unity government headed by Netanyahu and his main political adversary, Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party.

Peretz is set to be economy minister, while fellow Labor MK Itzik Shmuli will receive the Ministry of Labor and Social Services.

However, the third Labor lawmaker, Merav Michaeli, appealed to party members to reject joining the government.

“Voters will retaliate against us for this disgrace, and the glorious Labor party of Ben Gurion and Rabin will simply be erased,” she said in a video Sunday, referring to Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, and prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In the latest election, Labor ran alongside Orly Levy-Abekasis’s Gesher party and the Meretz party. Together the three parties won seven Knesset seats, though the alliance disintegrated after the election with Labor now reduced to three of those parliamentary seats. Gesher, also set to join the new government, has one seat and Meretz, in the opposition, has the remaining three.

Meretz party leader Nitzan Horowitz called on Labor Party members disaffected with the decision to join the new government to come over to his left-wing party.

“We won’t turn our backs on you and won’t betray your trust,” the Ynet news site quoted him saying, referring to Peretz’s broken vow not to join a government led by Netanyahu.

After three deadlocked national elections in just over a year, Gantz and Netanyahu agreed earlier this month to form a unity government to address the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.

Unemployment has shot up to over 25% since the beginning of March as Israel has forced most nonessential businesses to close to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Health Ministry has reported over 15,000 cases and 200 deaths.

The virus causes mild to moderate symptoms in most patients, who recover within a few weeks, but it can cause severe illness or death, particularly in older patients or those with underlying health problems.

As part of their unity deal, Netanyahu and Gantz agreed to share the premiership, with Netanyahu serving as prime minister the first 18 months and Gantz serving the next 18 months.

Netanyahu is scheduled to face trial next month on charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. He denies the charges.

Peretz wrote on Facebook last week that joining the Netanyahu-Gantz government would put the six-seat party “back in political center stage.”

“We are joining an equal unity government with a rotation in the role of prime minister, not a right-wing government,” he said.

But allying with Netanyahu runs against repeated campaign promises by Peretz, who shaved his decades-old signature mustache on video last year. “Now everybody can read my lips,” he said, pledging never to join a Netanyahu-led government.

The Netanyahu-Gantz agreement also includes a clause on advancing plans to annex parts of the West Bank, including Israeli settlements, starting on July 1.

Peretz has said he would oppose such a move from within the government. But some Labor supporters believe that by joining Netanyahu’s government, the party will be accessory to dismantling the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians spearheaded by Labor prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by a Jewish right-wing extremist in 1995.