Labor party representatives met with President Shimon Peres on Thursday and informed him that their party would not recommend either Kadima head Tzipi Livni or Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu to head the next government.
The Labor delegation, which included MKs Shelly Yechimovich, Eitan Cabel and Ophir Pines-Paz, informed Peres that the decision not to choose a candidate was unanimous.
Labor is the second largest party in the current Knesset, but will be only the fourth-largest in the next Knesset, having been passed by Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home). Earlier in the day Yisrael Beiteinu representatives told Peres that their party recommended Netanyahu as prime minister.
Labor considered recommending Livni, but decided not to after Livni agreed to many of the demands set forth by Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, Yechimovich and Pines-Paz explained.
"Unfortunately, [Livni] decided not to put her faith in the center-left, and instead looked to Yisrael Beiteinu in hopes of joining Bibi [Netanyahu] in a rotation or some other arrangement,” Pines-Paz said. “In that sense, she made our life easier when she chose not to stand with us,” he added.
Yechimovich sharply criticized Lieberman, who she termed “an evil wind that is highly dangerous to Israeli society.”
The Labor party is currently preparing to work from the opposition. “It's time for us to work from the opposition, to build and be built there and to restore the public faith in Labor,” said Cabel.