Likud defectors say party ignored poverty
About 200 Likud members decide to leave the party and join Labor; blame Likud for neglecting social issues
Some 200 Likud members who have decided to leave the party due to the recent political developments, attended a conference Wednesday at the Labor headquarters with party chairman Amir Peretz.
Most of the participants in the meeting said they have decided to join Labor.
Peretz. Will not forgive Sharon (Photo: Yaron Brenner)
Peretz, who spoke at the conference, remarked on the social-trend dominating the pre-elections period.
"The custom Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has tried to sell must not deceive us. Sharon said at the Knesset that Benjamin Netanyahu was the best finance minister ever. If Bibi asks for forgiveness, I'll forgive him, but not Sharon," Peretz said.
"The PM has masqueraded as a sheep and allowed the wolf to have his way," the Labor chairman added.
'Peretz knows what poverty means'
The most senior Likud member who
participated in the meeting, chairman of Rehovot's Likud branch Shlomo Yifrach, was greeted with applause by the audience.
"People forgot who elected them," he said, referring to the Likud Knesset members. "They took care of everything but the people themselves. I did not join Labor just to vote for Amir Peretz, but also in order to bring with me the thousands of people I have worked with, to support me."
Amir started at the bottom, Yifrach said, and so he knows what poverty is, and what helping people means.
"He has the credentials the other candidates lack, and he can become a prime minister in Israel," he said.
Yifrach told the participants that earlier Wednesday he sent a letter to the Likud headquarters announcing his resignation from the party. Kadima is a one-man party, never mind the polls, he said
"Here we have troops, Kadima only has one man. If we go from door to door we will recruit many soldiers and win the elections," he stated.
Social situation is main concern
Other Likud members who attended the meeting said they were disappointed by the Likud, mostly because it has failed to address the social situation in Israel.
"If people have to look for food in trash cans, then this is not my party. This is not what I prayed for. People are sick and tired of promises. Sharon has turned his back on his voters, and for that reason I will not back him," Yaakov Elbaz, former chairman of Ashdod's Likud branch said.
Several ultra-Orthodox activists and former Likud members carried signs at the meeting, reading, "We have no other country, but we have another party," and "Likud stays with the corrupt, we are going with Amir Peretz."
