Former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni should not form a new party and should join
Labor instead, Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich said on Saturday.
“Whoever
wants to bring a different government to Israel and replace [Prime Minister
Binyamin] Netanyahu cannot establish [new] parties that will stay small and will
undermine the same group of voters and will not be a true alternative. The only
alternative to Netanyahu is Labor under my leadership,” Yacimovich said at an
event in an assisted living center in Tel Aviv.
Livni is expected to
announce on Monday that she is forming the “National Responsibility Party,”
which will include Kadima MKs and new candidates, and will exclude any
politicians with legal trouble, like former prime minister Ehud Olmert and
former minister Haim Ramon.
Yacimovich said Livni is a good person for
the political system, and should join Labor as opposed to splitting up the
“central bloc.”
Later Saturday, Yacimovich wrote on her Facebook profile
that she had invited Livni to join Labor several times.
“The right way to
do it is together, not apart,” she stated. “It is not worth it to ruin the
chances of replacing the current government, which gives new hope to
Israel.”
The Labor leader expressed confidence that her party will be the
largest in the Center-Left, regardless of new parties that may be formed between
now and the January 22 election.
Yacimovich pointed out on Facebook that,
according to a poll in Ma’ariv and Makor Rishon, a new party formed by Livni
would not hurt Labor much, but would cause Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party to lose
several seats.