MMeretz chairman, Knesset Member Yossi Beilin, responded to the Knesset speaker's call to set up a national emergency government.
"Participating in a government with no common denominator is doomed to failure from the start," he said. "Meretz will not participate in any government that will not have in its agenda plans for a peace process with the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Lebanese. We will not take part in a government that has the sole function of maintenance." (Ilan Marciano)