MK Efrat Rayten (Labor) announced on Friday that she would be running for the leadership of the party in the next primaries.
Rayten made the announcement in an interview on the Channel 12 program Ofira & Berkovic.
“I have no doubt that I will put myself up as a candidate in the next elections for the leadership of the Labor Party,” she said.
Asked whether she is running because she views current party chairwoman Merav Michaeli as no longer suitable for the job, Rayten replied, “No, I think that’s what’s beautiful about this party, unlike the other parties. We have mechanisms and activists, and they’re the ones who ultimately choose the chairman.”
To the question of whether she thinks Michaeli is one of the main reasons for Labor”s poor showing in the last elections, she replied, “I think she is also being wronged a great deal. It is clear that today, in retrospect, you can look back and say that an alliance with Meretz could have changed the picture – probably yes. It is not certain that the government would not have been able to establish itself, but it is possible that the gap in seats would have been smaller.”

Labor won just four seats in the November elections, compared to seven in the previous Knesset, leaving party members angry with Michaeli. Many recent polls have indicated that, if elections were to be held today, Labor would not even pass the electoral threshold.
(Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)