Peretz says Tzipi Livni Party could join coalition

Peretz says his party would consider joining coalition; Labor will not join Netanyahu and is headed to the opposition says Cabel.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The beginning of talks for the formation
MK Amir Peretz told Army Radio on Sunday that the Tzipi Livni Party would weigh joining the new government coalition if the party was, "promised that negotiations for a political settlement with the Palestinians would occur." Peretz added, "The parties that form the government are not important but rather its guiding principles." Peretz claimed that the Tzipi Livni Party was the only party that gave top priority to a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.
Labor MK Eitan Cabel on the other hand, told Army Radio that his party would not join the new coalition, and that his party was united behind party leader's Shelly Yacimovich's position that Labor would not join Netanyahu's government.
Joint Shas leader Eli Yishai said on Saturday night that he feels Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu prefers to form a new government without Shas.
Speaking on Channel 2, Yishai estimated that there was just a thirty percent chance of Shas joining the next coalition and accused Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid of seeking to “divide the nation and wanting to destroy the world of Torah.”
But speaking at the ceremony in which President Shimon Peres authorized him to begin forming a government, Netanyahu echoed the language of the haredi parties regarding the central issue of haredi national service enlistment.
The prime minister said that it was important to “significantly increase the share of the burden [of national service],” but that it must be done in a “responsible manner that will bring real change without dividing the nation and causing a civil war.”