Israeli left unhinged over Gesher MK’s defection to Netanyahu

A picture of Orly Levi-Abekasis as a prostitute was one of the more outrageous attacks on the breakaway MK, who joined with Netanyahu.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

In what was perhaps the most extreme expression of left-wing fury at Orly Levi-Abekasis, who formally jumped from the opposition to the Netanyahu camp on Sunday, journalist and Labor party member Aybee Binyamin tweeted a picture of her dressed as a whore.

Levi-Abekasis led her own party, Gesher, which she attached to a left-wing faction that included the Labor and Meretz parties. After the March 2 election, in which the faction won seven Knesset seats, it disintegrated.

In reaction to Levi-Abekasis’s decision, Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg said, “Her first step will be how she sleeps at night. Now I understand that she has no conscience or morals and not even a minimum of shame.”

Nitzan Horowitz, head of the Meretz party, said, “Orly Levi doesn’t represent not even one voter among the 267,480 that voted for our list. Her shameful journey is in fact a theft of left-wing votes to obtain personal benefit. We have to expose immediately the shameful bribery between her and Netanyahu.

“The president should ignore her recommendation [for Netanyahu] and not lend a hand to this political fraud and the ongoing trampling of the trust between the public and its elected representatives,” Horowitz said.

Meirav Michaeli of the Labor party, the only member of that party not to join a unity government that included Netanyahu, said of Levi-Abekasis, “Orly Levi decided today finally that she is a part of the right-wing bloc of Netanyahu. Amir Peretz erred when he let her into a partnership with the Labor party. It’s forbidden to let him err again and to give the Labor party to Netanyahu.”

Levi-Abekasis, in a post to her Facebook account on Sunday, argued that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz shouldn’t be given an extension to his mandate to form a government, calling his need for one as proof that he couldn’t get the job done.

“The prime minister should be given the mandate, because let’s admit that only he has a chance to form a government,” she said.

Netanyahu shared her tweet, replying, “Orly, welcome.”

Levi-Abekasis’s decision returns her to the right side of the political aisle where she began her political career.

There were signs that she was drifting away from the center-left opposition when she announced she wouldn’t support a government that relied on the Arab Joint List, which includes members who have openly supported terrorism. She described the idea as “scandalous.”

Netanyahu now has 59 Knesset members in his bloc, only two away from a majority.