Labor votes by landslide to join government

Labor leader Amir Peretz and MK Itzik Shmuli will soon be ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, after the Labor activists who voted online at Sunday's overwhelmingly approved their request to enter the coalition. Among the 3,840 Labor activists eligible to cast ballots, more than 90 percent voted. Peretz's proposal passed by a vote of 2,248 to 1,219. The vote was a blow to Labor MK Merav Michaeli, who opposed entering the government and tried unsuccessfully to postpone the vote. She protested that the vote asks activists whether they are in favor of an agreement Peretz reached with Blue and White and not about entering a government that will initially be led by Netanyahu. She intends to remain in Labor despite the vote and not to join an opposition party like Yesh Atid or Meretz. Yesh Atid MKs took turns blasting Blue and White on Sunday at a meeting of the special committee formed to legislate the bills required to form a government. Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid complained to the committee that senior Likud figures did not come to the meeting and instead inexperienced Blue and White MKs were 'sent as cannon fodder.' Hours later, at an online press conference, Lapid said his former political partner, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, is unfit to be prime minister and Gantz's party was unfit to lead. 'Blue and White has fled like fire from every key post that deals with the coronavirus, including the Health and Finance ministries and the Knesset Finance Committee, Lapid charged at the press conference. Lapid said that from now on, Yesh Atid would only make political bonds with other parties if he would lead the list. He vowed to build a political camp under his leadership that will win the next election. 'We will continue to go with our values and build a camp of people who think principles must be maintained and promises must be kept, even when it is inconvenient,' Lapid said. 'We will go from town to town and tell people that politics can be different.' Lapid warned that Israel would be harmed diplomatically and economically if it annexes West Bank territory, especially if Democratic candidate Joe Biden becomes US president, backed by Congress controlled by the Democrats.

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