The Labor Party and Hatnua head Tzipi Livni will run together on a joint list for the next Knesset in the March 17 election, Labor leader Isaac Herzog and Livni announced together at a Tel Aviv press conference Wednesday night.
Despite Labor having 15 seats in the outgoing Knesset and Hatnua not passing the electoral threshold in some polls, Herzog gave into Livni's demand for a rotation in the Prime Minister's Office if the list wins the election and forms the next government. Herzog would serve the first two years and Livni the remainder of the term.
Livni will be second on the joint list, which will also include reserved slots for Hatnua MKs Amir Peretz and Amram Mitzna but not for the remainder of the Hatnua faction. Herzog is also seeking a deal with Kadima that will reserve a slot for its leader, Shaul Mofaz.
A name for the joint list will be announced in upcoming days but for now, Livni referred to it as the "new Zionist Center." The agreement is pending a decision by the Labor central committee, which will convene Sunday at a party convention in which the deal will likely face criticism from MKs and activists who believe Herzog gave up too much.
"I know our move will raise questions, but I am not deterred," Herzog said. "You have to know how to set egos aside and do what is right for the country, not what is right for personal gain." Herzog said that when he became Labor leader he vowed to not repeat the mistakes of his predecessors who failed to unite the Center-Left parties. He said he realized that uniting was the only way to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and return Labor to power.
Livni, who was wooed by Yesh Atid as well, said she chose Labor because she believed Herzog would make a terrific prime minister and that their outlooks were similar. She said uniting was necessary to stop Rightist politicians she served in the government with until recently from continuing to run the country.
"We spoke at length and realized we have the same vision and mission," Livni said. "That vision and goal are stronger than any argument you can find between us. We are creating a new Zionist center against the extreme right that isolated Israel. No one can complain any more that there is no chance to win. We have created that chance." Despite their criticism of Netanyahu, neither Herzog nor Livni would agree to firmly rule out serving in a government led by him, but she did say that after what she endured in her final weeks in the coalition, she did not intend to repeat that experience. Both Herzog and Livni downplayed that she was now in her fourth party.
"She stands for her principles," Herzog said.
But Pensioners Affairs Minister Uri Orbach (Bayit Yehudi) mocked Livni, whose first name means bird in Hebrew, saying "she flew to another party and got three eggs there, but she will eventually move to another nest." Likud officials said it was good for the party that the public would now understand that the race is between the Likud under Netanyahu and the Left under Herzog. They expressed satisfaction that Netanyahu now had a clear opponent in the race and hope that voters on the Right would now realize that they must vote Likud and not for another party in the nationalist camp.
"Would you let a wimp with 15 seats who gave up half the store to someone who was not going to pass the electoral threshold negotiate on your behalf?" Likud faction chairman Ze'ev Elkin said."The Left is offering a government of musical chairs that will divide the premiership like a cake in a kindergarten. Who in the public wants a Beauty and the Geek government?" The Likud faced its own decision Wednesday when its 3700 central committee members were elegible to vote on Netanyahu's proposal for how to elect the party's Knesset candidates. The proposal would advance the Likud leadership race by a week and enable the party chairman to reserve slots on the Likud list for candidates of his choosing.
Results were not available at press time, and they may end up invalidated by the Tel Aviv District Court, which will hear an appeal on whether the vote was legal Thursday afternoon.
The vote was seen as a test of Netanyahu's leadership ahead of a challenge from MKs Danny Danon and Moshe Feiglin, and potentially former interior minister Gideon Sa'ar, who must decide whether to run by Sunday afternoon's deadline. Netanyahu's efforts to advance the race were seen as an attempt by him to prevent Sa'ar's from running. Sa'ar criticized Netanyahu when he went to vote at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds.
"The attempt to change the rules in the middle of the game is not fair," Sa'ar said. "There is no problem with the orignal date chosen by the central committee, January 6. It leaves enough time before the Likud list for the Knesset has to be submitted." Deputy foreign minister Tzachi Hanegbi, an ally of Netanyahu, responded that there was no attempt to change the rules, just to finish internal procedures in Likud as soon as possible and prepare for the general election.
Former welfare minister Moshe Kahlon, who left the Likud, announced Wednesday that his party's name would be Kulanu, which means all of us in Hebrew.

By GIL HOFFMAN