Labor Party Chair Merav Michaeli delivered a statement to the press today (Thursday), announcing her resignation from the Knesset: “I take responsibility for the state of the Labor Party and therefore I do not intend to run in the primaries for leadership of the Labor Party.”
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All polls conducted since the elections show the Labor Party not passing the electoral threshold next round. Michaeli herself has been sharply criticized for not agreeing to unite with Meretz before the elections, leading to Meretz itself falling beneath the threshold and not making it into the Knesset while Labor dropped to a nadir of 4 seats – and the right came to power.
Beyond the public pressure applied to Michaeli, her colleagues Gilad Kariv, Efrat Reiten, and Na’ama Lezimi pressured her to leave as party leader and allow the party a chance to survive. Sources assess that all these led Michaeli to deliver the statement she did.
This statement also may have come due to Likud sources believing that the Prime Minister is considering early election as soon as possible. The Likud faces two options: either replace Netanyahu in the present Knesset to avoid going to elections, or hold elections during wartime.
Neither option is attractive for Likud, though the seeds for the coalition’s collapse seem to have been sown with Barkat’s opposition to passing the budget, Defense Minister Gallant’s abstention from voting on it, and Edelstein who attacked Finance Minister Smotrich.