LIKUD DERANGEMENT SYNDROME:

Efforts Continue to Form Non-Sharon Government (Hillel Fendel, 12/12/05, INN)

Labor Party leader Amir Peretz says he will not cooperate with the attempts to have him head a 61-MK coalition with the Likud and thus postpone the elections to November. [...]

More likely is a Likud bid to support Amir Peretz of Labor. This would be a hard pill for Likud front-runner Binyamin Netanyahu to swallow, as he and Peretz have long been political rivals. Most recently, late last year, Peretz led a nationwide strike against then-Finance Minister Netanyahu's policies.

Netanyahu has not made his position clear, but Peretz said unequivocally today that he would not participate in "tricks" of this nature. "The Prime Minister must be chosen in the voting booth, and not by tricks," Peretz said.

However, others in Labor are not so sure. It is assumed that if Labor's poll showings continue to drop, the party will consider the option more seriously.

Likud MK Ayoub Kara said he would be willing to do "almost anything" in order to "send the Kadima Party to flounder and drown in the ocean" - including supporting Amir Peretz as Prime Minister until November.

At least they aren't pretending it's principled.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 12, 2005 9:59 AM