In her first act as Labor leader, MK Merav Michaeli announced Monday that she was pulling the center-left party from the transitional coalition and ordered ministers Amir Peretz and Itzik Shmuli to resign from their cabinet posts.
“The Labor party is leaving the corrupt Netanyahu-Gantz government. I have informed Peretz and Shmuli they must resign the government as soon as possible. Labor is starting anew,” she wrote on Twitter.
Her order on Monday appeared aimed at exacting retribution against the two Labor politicians, who despite repeated election promises never to serve under a prime minister facing criminal indictment, leaped into the government in May when offered the chance.
Labor has seen its fortunes tumble in recent years, hit by a rightward shift among Israeli voters, turmoil in the party, and the emergence of new political players who have eroded its base. Since entering the government after the previous election, the party lost virtually all of its support and no recent opinion poll has predicted it would enter the next Knesset.
Michaeli has said she is open to joining with another party before the election in order to increase Labor’s chances of passing the electoral threshold, but only if they are an “ideological ally.” The Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday morning that if she won, she was likely to sign an agreement to run with The Israelis. As the results of the leadership race were announced, Channel 13 News published a poll predicting a Michaeli-led Labor would squeak past the electoral threshold into the Knesset if it ran alone.
