Gabbay to Gantz and Lapid: Pledge you won't join Netanyahu's government

Labor leader Avi Gabbay called on Hosen L'Israel party leader former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to pledge not to sit in a government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."There is one question that needs to be answered: Do we share a commitment not to sit in a government headed by Netanyahu?" said Gabbay at the Kibbutz Movement Conference at the Dead Sea on Wednesday."This split must not lead to the establishment of the fifth Netanyahu government," he said. "We will not forgive ourselves if that happens. I did not enter politics in order to build a platform for myself to join Netanyahu's government at any moment," Gabbay said.The Labor leader called attention to the commitment needed to implement change in the political sphere.  "We are in an unprecedented political period," he said, adding that "every day new parties emerge and try to tell us a new story."Gabbay ended Labor's partnership with the Hatenua party of Tzipi Livni, publicly firing her and appointing MK Shelly Yachimovich as opposition leader earlier this month. Gabbay has faced attempts to unseat him as Labor's leader ahead of the April 9 election.