Resigning Yisrael Beytenu MK says she was kept in dark on coalition talks

MK Orly Levy-Abekasis, who announced Thursday that she would leave the Yisrael Beytenu party over its expected entry into the Likud-led government, said Saturday that she had been deliberately kept in the dark with regard to coalition talks.

“I did not know anything in real time,” Levy-Abekasis, who was number 2 on the party list, said during an interview with Channel 2. “I think the intention was for me not to know so that I will not make demands on social issues.”

The lawmaker, who will remain in the opposition, complained that her party had not placed any emphasis on advancing social causes during negotiations over entering the government.

“The issues for which I turned to public action relate to children at risk, the elderly, the poor, public housing, for those people who are truly transparent, not just as a slogan,” Levy-Abekasis said.

The lawmaker made her resignation announcement as negotiations between Yisrael Beytenu and Likud were still ongoing, with both sides indicating a final deal would be signed shortly. According to recent reports, Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman dropped demands to advance conversion reforms, civil unions and increased IDF enlistment for the ultra-Orthodox.

“As soon as things became clear to me, it was very easy to make the decision” to leave the party, Levy-Abekasis continued. “I could not get hold of Liberman to inform him [of my decision], and it’s not that I didn’t try. That’s also indicative of something.”

With the remaining Yisrael Beytenu lawmakers on his side, and Levy-Abekasis in the opposition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have 66 MKs in his coalition.

Netanyahu on Friday signaled that he would be pleased to see the Zionist Union join his government, despite bypassing the party in favor of a pact with Yisrael Beytenu. Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog held weeks of intense coalition talks with Netanyahu, which ended as the prime minister began talks with Liberman to bring his party into the coalition. Herzog said Saturday he would not be resuming negotiations.

Also on Friday, Netanyahu expressed regret at Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s decision to resign from his post, and from his position as a lawmaker for the Likud, following the impending appointment of Liberman as defense minister in Ya’alon’s place. The prime minister denied that the portfolio reshuffle that triggered Ya’alon’s departure stemmed from a crisis of confidence between the two, but rather from the need to expand the government, “in order to bring stability to the State of Israel in light of the great challenges it faces.”