Peace Now head to bid for slot on Labor roster

Yariv Oppenheimer, secretary-general of the left-wing Peace Now movement, announced Thursday that he would be bidding for a slot on the Labor Party's Knesset roster for the next general election.

"Despite the difficult situation Labor is in I've decided to bid for a slot on the roster, with a true desire to rejuvenate the party and have some element of the peace camp, which have turned their back on the party in the past few years, come back to it," he told Ynet.

As for the current political climate, Oppenheimer said that "Israeli politics is full of opportunistic people, with no opinion of their own, who jump from one party to another and change their views on a daily basis just so they can secure a Knesset seat.

"I have no doubt that a consistent and ideological platform can draw the party's long-time constituents back home and boost its public standing," he said.

Oppenheimer also played up the importance of young people's participation in the Knesset race: "If what we really care about is this country's future, than young people must be part of the political system, and they must become an alternative to the current leadership. 

"Only by means of rejuvenating the current (Labor) roster, and by introducing young people with a clear ideological stand, opposite the hitchhikers who joined other parties just to get into the Knesset, would the party be able to win back its mandates," he concluded.