Peretz accuses Netanyahu, Liberman of colluding to force repeat elections

Amir Peretz and Avidgor Liberman traded barbs on Thursday, with the Labor leader accusing his nationalist rival of colluding with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tank coalition negotiations following April’s Knesset elections in order to force a second round of voting.

“Going to this election was a coordinated effort between Liberman and Netanyahu with the aim of splitting off secular votes from the left-wing bloc and ushering in four more years of Netanyahu in power,” Peretz told Channel 12.

That elicited a strong response from Liberman, who responded with the counter-accusation that Netanyahu was secretly planning to bring Labor into the coalition and create a left-wing government.

“It is clear to me that Peretz’s consideration is Netanyahu’s support for the presidency,” he claimed.

In response, Peretz said that Liberman, “who for years served as Netanyahu’s defender and saved his government several times in the past, is trying to convince us that he is now his great enemy.”

He also stated categorically that he would not join a coalition led by Netanyahu, adding that “if we decide on a dirty deal, we will contact Liberman to mediate it.”

Labor’s central committee approved the party’s merger with Orly Levy-Abekasis’s Gesher on Wednesday, days after the two factions announced that they would join forces.

It also approved a clause that stipulated no further mergers would take place, burying any hopes that Labor would join with the newly formed Democratic Camp — in itself a product of a union of Meretz, Ehud Barak’s Israel Democratic party and breakaway Labor MK Stav Shaffir.

Though she focuses on social issues, Levy-Abekasis, the daughter of former Likud foreign minister David Levy, has remained largely identified with the right, and the merger was seen as a move by Labor to push for more support from the political center rather than from Meretz, which is further to the left.

At the launch of his party’s slate on Tuesday, Liberman told supporters that he plans to force a national unity government between Likud and the centrist Blue and White party. During a speech at his party’s Jerusalem headquarters, Liberman said that there was “essentially no difference” between the two factions and that he would recommend that the first leader to call for a unity government be tasked with forming a coalition.

According to Channel 12, if the election were held today Likud and Blue and White would receive 30 seats each, followed by United Right with 12, the Joint (Arab) List with 11, Yisrael Beytenu with 10, United Torah Judaism with eight, Shas with seven, the newly formed Democratic Camp seven, and Labor-Gesher with five.