MK Yoram Marciano announced his support for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on
Thursday, when he was sworn in as a Labor lawmaker.
Marciano, 48, was a
Labor lawmaker in the 17th Knesset, from 2006 to 2009, and returned to the
legislature this week, following Amir Peretz’s resignation and move to The Tzipi
Livni Party earlier this month.
“It’s not easy for me to stand here today
and replace a friend, whom I went with on a long path,” Marciano, a close Peretz
ally, said. “I had the privilege to be a close friend, and I say unequivocally
that an injustice was done to him, which left him no choice but to do what he
did.”
Marciano said he wrote in a letter to Labor chairwoman Shelly
Yacimovich that he is resigning from all of the party’s institutions, adding
that “it is not easy for me to leave my home.”
“I hear about all these
social trends. No one can teach me what social justice means!” he exclaimed in
the plenum. “The social flag is not the real problem in Israel.”
Marciano
concluded his speech by saying that “everyone will crawl to the coalition after
the election,” announcing his support for Netanyahu in the upcoming election,
and offering to help the prime minister in any way possible.