Gesher party chairwoman MK Orly Levy-Abekasis explained on Monday why she decided to break up her party’s partnership with Labor and Meretz.
"This decision came from a completely clean place and was based on my principles - the alliance with Labor was a social-economic alliance," Levy-Abekasis said in an interview with Channel 12 News.
She referred to comments she made in the past about her intention not to go into a government led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, saying, "First of all, you must remember that things have changed, whether politically or globally - the impact of the coronavirus on the economy and the health risk. When I ran an election campaign, whether with Gesher or with other parties, in contrast to others, I did not have an ‘anyone but Bibi’ campaign."
"People believe in my path and I made my decisions at any given moment in my political career out of consideration for the public. If I wanted to worry about Orly Levy, then I would be in a minority government supported by [Heba] Yazbak and Balad and I would have received any position I wanted, I would have become a senior minister. Perhaps in my act I stopped the delusional government that would have been established in which, at any given moment, the Joint List with Balad could come and topple a government, threatening the generals who need their vote," she added.
Levy-Abekasis also explained why she decided to support the transfer of the mandate to assemble a government to Netanyahu.
"I keep saying that the political situation has changed, the health situation, there is the coronavirus, there is an emergency in the economy. Did you ask Benny Gantz, Gabi Ashkenazi, Amir Peretz and Itzik Shmuli all these questions? I came to advance the issues for which I entered politics. I care about at-risk children, the healthcare system, populations that are collapsing under the burden of their daily routine, all the more so now."
Responding to her critics in both the Labor and Meretz parties, she said, "The entire alliance was with the Labor party. I may have saved Labor and Meretz. When I arrived, there were polls that gave Labor two and a half seats. I was not interested in that alliance. When Amir Peretz came to me day after day, he assured me that the connection will at most be economic."