Amir Peretz
Amir PeretzKobi Richter, TPS

Blue and White Chairman MK Benny Gantz and Labor Chairman MK Amir Peretz on Monday decided on dialogue to arrange cooperation between the factions and the parties.

In the first stage, the rules for joint work within the Knesset will be determined with the intention of uniting the factions.

Later, teams will be set up to collaborate and prepare for election campaigns in the future. The parties have decided that Blue and White MK Avi Nissenkorn and Labor MK Itzik Shmuli will work together to advance the issue.

Telem leader MK Moshe Ya'alon, who was one of the top four Blue and White MKs before the party split into its component factions, told Gantz: "It's not too late to regret a navigational error."

Labor's MK Merav Michaeli tweeted: "In order to arrange two portfolios for Amir Peretz and Itzik Shmuli, you don't throw away the party of [former Prime Minister David] Ben Gurion, [former Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin, and [former President Shimon] Peres."

"They are counting on the fact that party members, the vast majority of whom oppose this process, will leave. I call on all members of the party to remain and to fight for our party, to oppose this process which means only one thing: There is no more Labor party."

On Sunday, Labor and Meretz, which had run together in a technical bloc during the March 2020 elections, split apart at Peretz's initiative.

In a statement quoted by Globes, Peretz said: "We turned to unity because there was a danger that Meretz would not pass the electoral threshold. Now, with a divided heart, I have decided to separate. Today we do not see eye to eye about the way to serve the nation of Israel. I have decided to examine serving the public from within the government."