[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Unless this move is an intermediate step by Ami
Ayalon as he seeks a safe place on a party list [by Meimad merging later
with Meretz in a deal that gives him a place on their list without having to
run in primaries] this move is very likely to simply burn leftist votes as
the party fails to garner enough votes for three seats - the minimum for
getting into the next Knesset.]

Meimad breaks with Labor ahead of elections, will run separate list
Etgar Lefkovits , THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 20, 2008
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Ending a nearly decade-long partnership with the Labor Party, the dovish
religious party Meimad met late Thursday to vote through a decision by party
chairman MK Rabbi Michael Melchior to run as a separate list in the upcoming
national elections, with former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Chief Ami
Ayalon replacing him at the top of the party list. The move was approved by
66 votes to 2.

The decision comes as a pair of public opinion polls indicate that the
once-dominant Labor Party will suffer a stinging blow in the February 10
elections, garnering only 8-10 Knesset seats and, in a humiliating defeat,
becoming the fifth-largest party in Israel.

According to a 1999 agreement between Labor and Meimad, the latter was
allocated the 10th seat on a joint Labor-Meimad parliamentary list, which
was filled by Melchior for the past nine years. But with the polls
forecasting barely 10 seats for Labor, Melchior was told that the reserved
slot arrangement was over.

At the same time, Melchior's decision to let Ayalon (who recently left the
Labor Party over what he dubbed its failed path) run at the head of the
party list, even as Melchior retained his position as party chairman, was
seen as an attempt to inject new life and a security background into the
party as it set out a new path. Ayalon told the meeting that Meimad was a
"natural home" for him. The Jewish state, he said, "is not measured by the
number of people who keep Jewish commandments," but by "sincere concern for
each other, converts and the strangers among us."

Meimad first ran as an independent list in the 1988 elections, but failed to
get enough votes to enter the Knesset, only to team up with Labor a decade
later.

The Thursday night meeting of the party's 120-member leadership council did
not deal with the additional members of the party's new list, even though
Melchior has been courting environmental and educational groups, Melchior
spokesman Nir Hirschman said.

Nor was it determined Thursday how the list would be chosen, or whether the
expanded party would retain its name.

Melchior, who like Ayalon advocates territorial concessions with the
Palestinians, has in the past been derisively dubbed by Likud opposition
leader Binyamin Netanyahu, who is leading the race to become prime minister,
as "Yossi Beilin with a kippa."