Labor-Likud Deal Awaits Approval

Hana Levi Julian and Hillel Fendel Labor-Likud Deal Awaits Approval

Labor party chairman Ehud Barak has reached an “understanding” on a coalition deal with Likud party chairman and Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu. It is not clear whether his party will go along with it; the vote is to be held Tuesday afternoon. Negotiators for the two parties agreed on a deal early Tuesday morning after meeting for round-the-clock talks at Likud headquarters at the Maccabiah Village in Ramat Gan.

Barak and Netanyahu joined the marathon talks overnight, and both were expected to initial the agreement before it is brought before the Labor party’s governing council. The Labor party chairman will present the deal on Tuesday to a conference of his party’s Central Committee, where it will be decided whether to approve the agreement and join the government or not. Opposition to the agreement within Labor is very stiff.



Government Pulled Sharply to the Left

The agreement pulls what the country thought would be a nationalist government strongly to the left. It reiterates that Israel is obligated to all previous diplomatic agreements signed in the past, and “will act to achieve peace with each of its neighbors.”

The agreement gives Labor the Defense, Industry and Trade, Agriculture and Welfare ministries, as well as a minister-without-portfolio. Defense Minister Barak will be a “full partner” in all security matters. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will be headed by Likud and Labor MKs in rotation, beginning with Labor. Laws against illegal construction in outposts and in the Arab sector will be enforced.

The Likud also came very much towards the socialist Labor party on financial issues, signing what Labor’s Shalom Simchon called “an economic agreement that is unprecedented in its socialist nature.”

Netanyahu Will be Free to Abandon NU, UTJ

If Labor does indeed ratify the agreement, Netanyahu will have a sufficiently large parliamentary majority to walk away from the smaller right-wing parties that supported him in the elections, such as Ichud Leumi (National Union) and United Torah Judaism (UTJ).

Negotiations with Ichud Leumi have been particularly difficult. Party chairman Yaakov "Ketzaleh" Katz no longer insists on being given the Housing Ministry portfolio, as it has been promised to Shas. However, the party continues to demand that the Likud remain loyal to the Land of Israel and refuse to endorse the U.S.-backed “two-state solution” establishing a Palestinian Authority state.

Within the Labor party, many members have been adamantly opposed to the prospect of Labor joining a Likud-led coalition. The current proposal, which gives Barak – and not the party members – the right to appoint ministers, has angered them still more.