Before the last election I publicized on Facebook my intent to vote for Meretz. My friends asked me repeatedly why Meretz and not the Labor-Zionist Camp? After all, they argued, we have to replace Netanyahu and to do that we need a large party. Moreover, there are good people in the Labor Party who do excellent work (Shelly Yachimovich, Stav Shaffir, Meirav Michaeli, Yossi Yona, etc.). In response I wrote that I just can’t trust the Labor Party won’t join Netanyahu’s government and thus use my vote contrary to my intention. The Labor party has a long history of degrading itself and crawling into any coalition in return for non-existent “political influence,” and, of course, ministries.
Since Netanyahu’s first month in office, Herzog has been negotiating with him. They were close to finalizing a deal several times, but something happened in the last minute and they didn’t. Now that Herzog is really desperate, Netanyahu offers even less in return to joining the coalition. We know the nature of this government and the nature of Netanyahu. We know it’s futile to enter this rotten government.
But Herzog has nothing to lose. His career as party chairman is over. Nonetheless it is amazing that he is willing to harm the party and the country just so that he could travel the world as a useless foreign minister. Amazing, but not really surprising. This is the Labor party. Only once in recent decades, when Shelly Yachimovich was its chair, it refused the temptations of the coalition. Herzog could have learned quite a bit about how to operate as the opposition from Yachimovich.
As for me, not a day has gone where I’ve regretted voting for Meretz.
This is a translation of a Facebook post Tomer Persico published today.
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