Now is the time to raise the Labor party from its low point, head of the Labor-Gesher field office Yoram Marciano said excitedly on Tuesday night.
"I'm not happy that we got [an estimated] six seats, but it saved the party from death," said Marciano, the only Labor official who agreed to speak on the record immediately after exit polls were announced.
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Labor leader Amir Peretz kept away from the modest election headquarters in the Yad Eliyahu neighborhood of Tel Aviv.
Peretz knows that while he managed to keep the party out of the dustbin of history, he has a lot of work ahead of him.
A senior Labor official told Israel Hayom that there was "no chance" Labor would join a coalition with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Amir Peretz will keep his promise," the official said.
Approximately half an hour after exit polls were announced, Peretz sent a message to Labor activists.
"I ask that you wait until the final results are in, and all our friends at the polling places finish their work," he said.
"The media spent a month and a half slaughtering us," Marciano said.
"Right now is not the time to sum things up. … Amir Peretz was elected party leader two months ago. We got a party that was wrecked, with debts. A day after Peretz was elected, Shelly Yachimovich resigned, Tal Russo left, and [former leader] Avi Gabbay didn't do anything."
"[Ehud] Barak left, Stav Shafir left. Joining forces with Gesher was one of the good things that happened, and you'll see that in the end Orly Levy-Abekasis and her colleagues do a lot for us. We inherited a party that had a deficit of 8 million shekels [$2.3 million]," Marciano said.
