Disgrace. Dayan
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Soul searching. Amodai
Collapse. Hasson
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Labor veterans: Vote – greatest disgrace in history
Decision to join Likud-led coalition sends shockwaves through party lines, political Left. 'Some things you just cannot accept,' says former MK Yael Dayan; 'Party has to do some real soul-searching,' adds head of Young Labor
"Labor will never be the same," said former Knesset Member Yael Dayan Tuesday, once the results of the party's vote on Chairman Ehud Barak's coalition bid were in.
Tuesday evening saw a tumultuous meeting of the party's Central Committee that ended with a favorable vote for Barak's bid. The tally, numbering 680 "yea" votes and 507 "nay" votes, has effectively cleared Labor's path to join Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
Triumph or Failure?
Attila Somfalvi
After heated deliberation leftist party's Central Committee decides to back Ehud Barak's coalition bid, vote in favor of Labor joining Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's government
The question remaining she said, "Is whether or not the dissidents have any power. Do we all just accept this ruling or are there people out there who are willing to say 'this isn’t our party anymore.' I don't think I could bear staying in the party after this vote."
'Not a victory to brag about'
Young Labor members, who professed their adamant objection to the move, were outraged by the vote, slamming it as a fiasco.
"The party has to do some real soul-searching," Maayan Amodai, head of Labor's Young Guard, told Ynet; adding that Labor will find it impossible to simply "go on as if nothing had happened."
"Barak won against himself here. This isn’t exactly something to brag about," said Labor Secretary-General Eitan Cabel. MK Shelly Yacimovich, visibly upset, added that despite the harsh emotional disappointment, she has no intention of leaving the party lines.
The political Left did not spare its criticism of Barak and Labor as well: Meretz Chairman Chaim Oron urged Labor dissidents to join his party in the opposition, saying that "Netanyahu needs a fig's leaf and Labor has always been eager to cater to that need."
MK Yoel Hasson, chairman of the Kadima faction, called the decision "shameful," adding that the "disgrace looming over Labor's decision to forsake its values in favor of a few seats illustrates more than anything else its total collapse."
Hadash Chairman Mohammad Barakeh added that Ehud Barak has "buried the Labor Party": "Labor has posed as the alternative to the Right for the past several years and now it has come to the end of its road as the fifth wheel in Benjamin Netanyahu's chariot, racing to obliterate what is left of the peace process."
Amnon Meranda, Attila Somfalvi, Yael Levy and Sharon Roffe-Ofir contributed to this report
