Israel’s Labor party voted on Sunday to join the incoming government headed by arch-rival Benjamin Netanyahu, despite repeated campaign promises to never sit with a prime minister facing criminal indictments.
The party once led by former prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres 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. Mr Netanyahu’s Likud is the largest party in the Knesset, with 36.
About 3800 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 Mr Netanyahu and his main political adversary, Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party. Israeli media said the measure passed by a 60-40 margin.
After three deadlocked national elections in just over a year, Mr Gantz and Mr Netanyahu agreed this month to form an emergency government to address the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.
Unemployment has shot up to more than 25 per cent since the beginning of March as Israel has forced many businesses to close to prevent the virus’s spread. As of Monday, there were 15,443 cases and 201 deaths. As part of their unity deal, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz agreed to share the prime- ministership, with the former serving the first 18 months and the latter the next 18 months.
Read the article by Ilan Ben Zion in The Australian.