Minister Without Portfolio Ami Ayalon quits the sinking ship of Labor, and is considering running in Meretz’s new left-wing party – with the religious-left Meimad.

At a Sunday morning press conference in Tel Aviv, Ayalon attacked Labor Party leader Ehud Barak – “I cannot work to convince people to vote for Labor, or to vote for Barak as Prime Minister” – and said that Labor is a party “that one must not be a member of.”

“To reach a high place in Labor, one must not express any real opinions,” Ayalon charged.

Ayalon did not say what party he is joining, but hinted broadly that he will be running in one framework or another together with the far-left Meretz party.  The Yisrael HaYom daily reports that as the deadline for registering new parties in time for the coming elections, Ayalon plans to run as head of the left-wing religious Meimad party, as part of the Meretz ticket.

Meimad Shock

The report, which has not been denied in Meimad, comes as somewhat of a shock to the religious public. Meimad was founded in 1988, and was largely allied with the National Religious Party; its leaders even endorsed the NRP prior to the 1996 elections.  It broke off from the NRP in 1998, became an independent political party in 1999, and ran together with Labor on the One Israel list. 

Sources within Meimad told Israel National News that “there are contacts” between Meimad and Meretz, but would not elaborate. A spokesman for party leader MK Rabbi Michael Melchior added only, “There is nothing to relate to at present, other than media speculation.”

Meimad Platform

Meimad’s platform states that in a “final agreement on Judea and Samaria… no foreign army is to cross the Jordan River, and Jerusalem is to be under Israeli sovereignty” – two points that are foreign to the Meretz platform. 

Just a year ago, outgoing Meretz party chief Yossi Beilin wrote, “Continued declarations of a ‘united Jerusalem’ are just empty slogans... It's time to… reach a final status agreement that would allow the Palestinians to found a state alongside Israel with its capital in East Jerusalem.”

Ayalon's Zig-Zags

In September 2007, after he lost his bid to become Labor Party Chairman to Ehud Barak, Ayalon was named a Minister Without Portfolio in the Olmert government - despite Ayalon's own previous protests that such a post is "immoral."  Among other zig-zags he has been cited for was his joining of the government that he had originally condemned and demanded that Labor leave. 

In fact, Labor’s Secretary-General MK Eitan Cabel said at the time that Ayalon had harmed Labor by thwarting the goal of many party members – including, at one time, Ayalon himself - to bring down the government.

In response, Ayalon has said, "It's the circumstances that zig-zag, not me."

When Ayalon assumed the Minister Without Portfolio position, an Ayalon supporter said at the time that he would be a "minister of microphones... He'll get interviewed a lot and build himself up politically."

Cabel said today that Ayalon had “spit in the well from which he drank.” 



Labor, currently with 19 Knesset seats, is on its way to losing nearly half its strength, according to the most recent public polls.