פרי ולפיד
פרי ולפידצילום: מרים אלסטר, פלאש 90

Former Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid) said Monday that he has not ruled out sitting in a coalition with the far left. 

"When a coalition forms, there is nothing that would prevent Yesh Atid from sitting with Meretz in that same government," said Peri, who is running as #5 on Yesh Atid's list for the 20th Knesset. 

Peri, responding to election questions on his Facebook page, was asked whether his party would join a coalition headed incumbent Prime Minister. 

The MK responded that "Yesh Atid will do no anything to ensure Binyamin Netanyahu is not the next prime minister, but in politics, it is not wise to rule out any option in advance." 

"Yesh Atid will remain in the same place where it can continue to effect change, continue to influence, and show its excellent list and platform," Peri noted. 

Peri also notified voters of his preferred choice of government portfolios. 

When a poster asked "of all the positions in the government, which portfolio do you most prefer?" Peri stated clearly that he would like to be Defense Minister. 

Peri, a former head of Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet), who served in the agency from 1966-1994, stressed that he sees himself as the right fit for the oft-desired job. 

In a similar vein, former Education Minister Shi Piron, also of Yesh Atid, said Sunday that his party would prefer Labor Chairman Yitzhak Herzog head the next government over Netanyahu.

"There are democratic election results. At the moment we believe that replacing Netanyahu is the right thing," Piron told Galey Yisrael radio.

"By the way, I just want to say something. There's something in the American Constitution I suggest we learn from: two terms [for a president]. A person who led for two terms, you and I both know that what he didn’t do in ten years he will probably not do in the eleventh.”

“We are now at the end of three terms of Binyamin Netanyahu as prime minister, I think it’s time to test a new way and a new leadership in Israel,” he continued.

Asked by interviewer Menachem Horowitz how Yesh Atid would act if given a choice between Netanyahu and Herzog, and whether it would prefer Herzog, Piron replied, "If that is the choice, that is what we will do.”

"I repeat, we do not reject anyone, on the one hand, but on the other hand, we believe that it is time to replace Netanyahu," he added.