Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak has refused to promise Knesset members negotiating with Meretz about forming a new center-left party that Labor would not join a government headed by Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu after the February elections. A senior Labor official said the issue came up in talks conducted by Barak in the past two days aimed at preventing key Labor MKs such as Ami Ayalon, Ophir Pines-Paz and Michael Melchior from joining the new Meretz initiative. 11/13/08
