The Israeli Labor Party voted on Sunday [April 26th] to join the union government, which is due to come under an agreement between right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former centrist rival Benny Gantz.
The members of the party convention voted by 64.2% in favor of this agreement providing for the establishment of a government which will first be headed by Mr. Netanyahu and then by Mr. Gantz.
The agreement, initialed last week after sixteen months of political crisis and three ballots failed to decide between MM. Netanyahu and Gantz anticipate holding elections in three years. The government will be made up of 32 ministers for the first six months to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, and then 36, the largest cabinet in the history of Israel.
Sharing power
Netanyahu, whose corruption trial has been postponed due to the health crisis, will be prime minister for the first eighteen months, after which he will be replaced by Benny Gantz.
The two camps will divide the ministries equally, with the defense and justice portfolios for Mr. Gantz and his allies, and those of finance and health for Mr. Netanyahu's camp.
Labor leader Amir Peretz had signed an agreement with Mr. Gantz and agreed to join the government. Apart from Mr. Peretz, only one of the two other elected members of the left-wing party wished to join the coalition. Two portfolios, that of the economy and that of social affairs, should be entrusted to them.
The Labor Party, long in power in Israel but in decline for the past 20 years, won only three seats in a union of three parties in the March elections, out of the 120 in parliament. "We are not joining a right-wing government, said after the vote Mr. Peretz, but to a union government with a rotation. "