A process that will likely bring an end to Israel’s Labor Party concluded on March 30. For the moment, Labor has only three members in the current Knesset — Chairman Amir Peretz, Itzik Shmuli and Merav Michaeli — and various reports indicate that Peretz and Shmuli have reached an agreement with Blue and White Chair Benny Gantz to join the Netanyahu-Gantz government. In exchange, they will probably receive the economic and welfare portfolios.
Before the September 2019 election, Peretz swore to voters that he would never participate in a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. As if to prove his seriousness, he performed the circus-like act, which he considered “humorous,” of shaving off his trademark bushy mustache. He announced to the nation, “That mustache has been with me for 47 years, ever since I was a young armaments officer in the 890th Brigade. After consulting with family over the last few days, I decided to remove my mustache. I called a barber to come to my house, in the hope that the removal of my mustache will be accompanied by the removal of the cloud overshadowing the Labor-Gesher party. I want it to be clear to everyone: I will not join a Netanyahu government. Period.”
Gantz’s decision to join a unity (or emergency) government with Netanyahu, and thus fracture his party, is somewhat defensible. It can be argued that he did not want to put Israel through a fourth round of elections within a year. But what excuse does Peretz have? The coronavirus government will be formed with or without him. There is no real need for him to “act on behalf of the people” by joining it.
Michaeli, unlike her two fellow party members, decided not to be part of a Netanyahu-Gantz government. In a letter to Peretz she wrote, “No one knows as well as you that you cannot join a coalition without the approval of the party’s governing institutions. Even if the party decides to break its promise to its voters, that is not a decision that the party’s Knesset members can make on their own.” On the other hand, Michaeli also knows that the die has been cast.
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