A day after criticizing Likud for choosing a largely far-right
list of prospective Knesset members for the upcoming general
elections in its primaries, Labor chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich
on Tuesday admitted that she fears a similarly extremist slant
to her party resulting from the Labor primaries on Thursday.
“It’s absurd, but I face a similar challenge to the one that
[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu faced,” Yachimovich was
quoted as saying at a parlor meeting with national-religious
citizens on Tuesday afternoon. “Presumably, he, too, didn’t want
certain people in his party.”  Netanyahu made no secret of his
disappointment at the virtual ousting of moderate party veterans
such as Dan Meridor, Benny Begin and Michael Eitan, and the rise
of hardline right-wingers Moshe Feiglin and others, in Monday’s
Likud primaries.  Yachimovich has tried to position Labor as
center-left alternative to Likud in the elections, a move that
could be jeopardized by the loss of certain longtime MKs. While
Yachimovich did not