While some Labor party official wish to run their election campaign under the slogan “Just Not Bibi”, party leader Yitzchak Herzog is unwilling, for one simple reason. He is unwilling to rule out any possibility of entering into a coalition led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Having entered Knesset in 2003, Herzog is not a novice and he is aware that one cannot know with absolute certainty that entering into a coalition is a non-starter. It appears he prefers to maintain credibility with voters and therefore will not guarantee not working under a Likud framework, a reality that has occurred in the past between the parties.

Herzog calls on party colleagues to look at a bigger picture, adding “When I look at Likud today I see my colleagues under a great deal of pressure”. He details that they know his abilities and his success in making unions and coalitions and when asked if Yesh Atid, The Movement and Labor can say with certainty they would not enter a Netanyahu-led coalition, Herzog would not make such a statement.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)