Israeli Elections
Telem and Yesh Atid were originally members of Blue and White, but left the bloc when Benny Gantz decided to join Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The Israeli general best known for leading the country’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005 joined Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai’s new party.
“This is the time to let new forces break out and lead,” says Peretz, Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs Minister.
The social equality minister is the ninth lawmaker to leave Blue and White in the past two weeks.
Attorney Michal Diamant will be a member of the team preparing the party’s judicial system reforms, according to party head Gideon Sa’ar.
The Israeli prime minister will be able to name officials to the fifth or 10th place on Likud’s Knesset list for the March 23 election, as well as to slots number 26, 28, 36, 39 and 40.
As many as five different parties, ranging from Yamina to Yesh Atid, had been courting the former military chief.
For the first time since its inception in the 1960s, in the March elections Israel’s Labor Party may fail to pass the electoral threshold.
In a first since its inception in the 1960s, Labor is not expected to secure the four Knesset seats required to pass the electoral threshold.
The next round, slated for March 23, will take place amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the corruption trial of the prime minister.
Additional lawmakers are expected to make similar announcements in the coming days as another election seems imminent.
Following the recent high-profile cyber attack on a major insurance company, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman’s office looks to safeguard the integrity of the voting process.
