Yachimovich Rips Into Herzog For Turn to ‘The Right’

The Times of Israel reports: Senior Zionist Union lawmaker MK Shelly Yachimovich leveled heavy criticism on her Knesset faction’s leader, Isaac Herzog, Sunday morning over his proposal to unilaterally disengage from West Bank territories rather than engage in talks with the Palestinians.

“With a coalition being dragged along by the likes of [Jewish Home party MK Bezalel] Smotrich and [Likud MK Oren] Hazan, the Labor Party must offer an alternative political dialogue, not just to give up on it and use the common right-wing claim that ‘there is no-one to talk to,’” she told Israeli radio. Labor is one of two center-left parties, along with Hatnua, that make up the Zionist Union.

Yachimovich, a former leader of the Labor Party who is seen as a likely rival to Herzog in the next leadership race, stressed the importance of negotiations, especially during the current wave of violence, saying that while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may not be a “lover of Zion,” Israel may be facing its “last opportunity to speak with a secular, pragmatic, Palestinian leader, and we can’t lose this opportunity and play into the hands of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”