Yacimovich: I’m proud to be in the opposition

In letter Labor members, party leader says that from the opposition they can work to create an alternative government.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Labor party leaders 390 (photo credit: Lahav Harkov)
Labor party leaders 390
(photo credit: Lahav Harkov)
Labor is staying out of the coalition, because it would get empty portfolios and not be able to promote its agenda, party leader Shelly Yacimovich wrote in an email to Labor members on Saturday.
“We are going to lead the opposition. The opposition isn’t a holy ends, but it is a worthy place that is essential in a democracy, in which big changes can be made,” she explained. “We can have an influence, lead a path, start processes, in order to create, with hard work, an alternative to the government.”
Yacimovich added that she has experience fighting from the opposition and was, at times, more effective than ministers, who are held back by government unity even if they disagree with a policy.
The Labor leader also emphasized the importance of keeping her word – in this case, a campaign promise not to join a Netanyahu-led coalition – when the public has very little faith in politicians.
“If we knew that we could implement our values and influence reality from within Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government, we would have dealt with the new reality, and explained to the almost half million women and men who voted for us why, despite the difficulties, we were pragmatic and joined Netanyahu. But that is not the case,” she wrote.
Yacimovich also referred to the attempts to leave Yesh Atid and Bayit Yehudi out of the coalition, explaining that Netanyahu would have preferred a government with haredi parties and Labor, but that the prime minister did not give her “even a hint of a reason” to join the coalition.
“There was no change in his worldview, no readiness to make any early announcements that would show that he is not the same Netanyahu as before,” Yacimovich wrote. “I’m talking about a change in direction that is significant, recognizable, visible, from the path that is crushing Israeli society, which Netanyahu has led for the last decade.”