The Labor Party is sizzling at remarks by party leader Ehud Barak, who said that his talks with Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu "will continue."  The two met on Sunday night and discussed the possibility that Labor will join the Likud-led coalition. Labor Party seniors are up in arms, not sure if Barak means to take the entire party with him – despite a previous decision to remain in the Opposition – or to defect by himself.

The Kadima Party has definitely decided, at least for now, to remain in the Opposition, and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni will be its leader – an officially recognized Knesset position.  But Netanyahu appears to be adamant not to “go it alone” with a nationalist government, and if he cannot bring in the left-center Kadima, then he will try left-wing Labor.  Furthermore: if he can’t get the entire Labor Party to join, which appears likely, then he might even settle for the leftist-hawkish Barak on his own.

A similar scenario occurred in 1977 when Labor party MK Moshe Dayan accepted an offer to become Foreign Minister in the new Likud government led by Menachem Begin. Dayan was thrown out of the Labor party and created his own independent faction.

After his meeting with Netanyahu on Sunday night, Barak said, “We discussed the very serious challenges facing Israel, in terms of Iran, Gaza, and the financial crisis with its social ramifications, and our discussion will continue.”

Netanyahu Offers Four Portfolios
Netanyahu has reportedly offered Labor no fewer than four ministerial portfolios if the entire faction joins the government. 

Yechimovitch Strongly Against
Labor MK Shelly Yechimovitch, for one, is up in arms at the very idea.  “That declaration of last night is astonishing to me,” she told Army Radio on Monday.  “It stands in opposition to everything he has told me and others, and to continue considering joining the government is blatantly against what the public voted for.  I don’t want to sound off more strongly because I will be meeting with Barak today to have him clarify where he stands.”

Yechimovitch scorned what she called the “Labor Party’s ritual” of running to join the government “supposedly because of the terrible existential crisis facing the country and they have to save the country… all because they have trouble parting with their ministerial chairs.  This is a cheap exercise that keeps on repeating itself, and will cause the demise of the party.

Now in her second term in the Knesset after a successful career as an openly left-wing Israel Broadcasting Authority broadcaster, Yechimovitch said she cannot accept that “the defense and security of Israel depend solely on one person [Ehud Barak].  But from the party’s point of view, to sit in the same government with Netanyahu, Lieberman [head of Yisrael Beiteinu], the Jewish Home and Shas means the end of Labor; it’s so obvious and transparent.”

Yechimovitch is joined in her opposition by former party leader MK Amir Peretz, who has threatened to split the party, as well as MKs Ophir Pines and Eitan Cabel.

Others Support
On the other hand, incumbent Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Yitzchak Herzog and Shalom Simchon are in favor of joining the government.  If the matter is taken to the party’s Central Committee, it is likely that the above three will have the power to sway the vote in their favor – but it might cause a split in the party. 

Oded Tira, a respected figure in Israel’s military and business establishments and a friend of Ehud Barak, says that the good of the country requires that he join the government.

“In light of the colossal challenges facing the country," Tira told Army Radio, "we must have a broad and professional government.  I would like to see Barak as Defense Minister, but on the other hand I am aware that he has values, and he is also the head of a party.  But I also remember that he went to Camp David [in 2000, to meet with Yasser Arafat and offer him 98% of Judea and Samaria – ed.] practically all by himself, without support, because he thought this was the right thing.  It is now such a fateful hour that I would like him to become Defense Minister, and possibly his whole party will then join him.”

The Barak-Labor drama is playing out at the same time that the Likud continues its coalition negotiations with its “natural” nationalist coalition partners – namely, Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas, National Union and Jewish Home.