18th Knesset
She retained her seat in the 2009 elections, in fifth place on the Labor list. Shortly afterwards, she came out vocally against party leader Ehud Barak for negotiating a place for Labor in the Likud-led coalition of the thirty-second government of Israel. Believing that Labor would act as a dead weight on Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government, she opposed joining the coalition and warned that Labor would serve as a fig leaf for right-winged governmental agenda. The debate escalated to Yachimovich and six other Labor MK's being named as 'Labor rebels', who formed an anti-Barak alliance and restrained from voting along party lines, although officially being part Netanyahu's government. Trying to appease her, Barak offered Yachimovich an appointment as the Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor in the upcoming government. She refused the offer despite admitting it was a post she was aiming at, and continued opposing Labor's part in the government, up until early 2011 when Barak diverted from the party and the remaining MK's agreed on leaving the government.
During the 18th Knesset, Yachimovich continued to lead Knesset in passing legislation, and was referred to as a diligent parliamentarian. She has been described as a staunch social-democrat, highly critical and belligerent, who does not hesitate to take on fat cats and the lobbyists who represent them. She has been described as using unorthodox politics, with critics noting she managed to aggravate both economic right and dovish left with her stances.
After Ehud Barak left the Labor Party to form Independence in January 2011, a poll found that Yachimovich was the most popular of the likely candidates for leadership of the Labor Party. On March 3, 2011 Yachimovich declared her candidacy for party leadership and sought to sign up new members for the party. By the time the membership drive ended on June 6, Yachimovich, according to estimates, had signed up more than 17,300 new members.
A month prior to primary elections, an interview Yachimovich gave for a Haaretz feature article drew fierce critique from both wings of the political spectrum, and became one of her most highly referred to interviews. She stated that she does "not see the settlement project as a sin and a crime", since it was originally based on a widespread consensus that included the Labor Party. She argued that the Israeli Left is locked in a false paradigm which is portraying the Settlement project as responsible for the erosion of the welfare state, while actually the shortage of resources to relieve social injustices was a direct result of Benjamin Netanyahu's economic agenda. She concluded that Labor should first and foremost represent a social-democratic agenda, ahead of a Dovish agenda, and maintained that poverty, ignorance and broad social disparities should be tackled first since they tend to formulate a common ethos towards war.
Left wing commentators slashed her the following days as being a representative of the 'fake Left', as well as using populist stances to approach a more centrally and Hawkish leaning audience. Others argued that her order of priorities was flawed, noting that social justice within Israel can't be achieved without peace with its neighbors. The issue became pivotal to the upcoming primary elections, with fractions of the party forming to attack or defend her over those remarks. Despite criticism, she reiterated her opinion on the matter in several following instances, arguing that her only sin is that she does not adhere to the 'Post-Zionist order'.
In the leadership primary elections, held on September 12, Yachimovich came in first among the four contenders, defeating Peretz by a slim margin of 32% to 31%. Since the Labor party constitution requires a minimum of 40% of the votes for a first round decision, a run-off was held on September 21, resulting in a 54% to 46% victory (a margin of slightly more than 3,500 votes) over Peretz. In the early hours of September 22, Yachimovich was officially declared leader of the Labor Party at party headquarters, the second woman to hold that position after Golda Meir.
Following the announcement on the formation of a unity government on May 8, 2012 and Kadima's departure from the opposition, the Labor Party became the largest party in the opposition. As such, Yachimovich was nominated unopposed as Leader of the Opposition. She held this post for 70 days, until Kadima left the government and became the largest opposition party once again.
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