Labor eyes Center bloc despite disappointing finish

Party activists talk off-the-record about a possible Center-Left bloc to oust Netanyahu.

By BEN HARTMAN
Shelly Yacimovich outside polls on Election Day 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Labor)
Shelly Yacimovich outside polls on Election Day 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Labor)
Shelly Yacimovich and the Labor Party will work on joining a Center-Left coalition to threaten the right-wing bloc, the party leader said on Tuesday night, minutes after exit polls had her movement in a disappointing third place with only 17 mandates.
“There is now an opportunity to free Israeli citizens from the abuse of the Netanyahu government, and to do this we must work seriously and discreetly, because the fate of the Israeli public depends on it,” she said.
“I will do all I can and already started this morning to work on a coalition based on social-economic issues and a diplomatic process,” Yacimovich said.
She expressed her hope that a political revolution would take place and the Netanyahu government would fall.
“There is no doubt that a political drama is taking place before our eyes – the final results of which we’ll see in the morning. There is a big chance for a revolution and the end of the Netanyahu government,” she said.
Yacimovich’s statement was a marked departure from earlier in the evening, when excitement gripped Labor Party headquarters in Tel Aviv, where the feeling was the party would exceed expectations that had it clocking around 17 seats, and would enter the 19th Knesset as the second largest party.
At the time, Yacimovich said that the party’s figures were showing that it would get more than 20 mandates, which would allow it to put together the next government, presumably as part of a Center-Left bloc.