Meretz Chairwoman MK Zehava Galon, whose party dropped from six to four seats in the Knesset, announced Wednesday morning that she is resigning from the Knesset and that she will not run again for the chairmanship of the party.
“Meretz has passed the threshold but has received only 4 mandates,” she wrote on Facebook. “We all see the general picture very well. I said in the course of the campaign that if Meretz succeeds, it is everyone’s success, but if Meretz fails to live up to expectations, I am the address for that and I will take personal responsibility.
“That is why I announced, this morning, that I am resigning, and vacating my place in the Knesset so that my colleague Tamar Zandberg can enter in my place. I will not run again for the leadership of Meretz, and will remain chair of Meretz until an orderly transfer of the position, soon.”
“This is a very difficult moment for me,” she added. “I had hoped that Meretz would preserve its strength and even more than that, I hoped that we could set up an alternative government, and end the Netanyahu era.”
Galon said that it would be wrong to say that the voters have disappointed Meretz. “The citizens of Israel do not owe me anything, and I owe them everything. If the Israeli public chose to cut down Meretz’s size, if it chose to give Netanyahu another term in office, I am the only one who needs to reach conclusions from that. It is the responsibility of Meretz as a party to search its soul and find anew its compass and direction.”