Many people were surprised by the merger of Meretz with Ehud Barak’s Democratic Israel going into September elections when it was first reported on the morning of July 25. Few people knew about the secret talks that led to the parties agreeing to form an electoral list alliance. One person who knew nothing about them was Meretz chair Nitzan Horowitz. He only learned of the negotiations after they were over, when he was presented with a memorandum of understanding ready for him to sign.
In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, the architect of the agreement, Meretz Knesset member Issawi Freij, offered a detailed account of the behind-the-scenes events that led to the surprising merger and revealed that former Meretz leader Zahava Gal-On had been consulted during them. The interview, conducted just hours after the alliance was announced, offers a rare glimpse into how the most dramatic move in the current election campaign came to pass.