Herzog: PM wouldn’t take calls from US during Gaza war

Zionist Union party leader MK Isaac Herzog on Thursday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of lying in his election campaign and claimed that during last year’s conflict in the Gaza Strip the prime minister avoided answering the phone when Washington called, sending then-justice minister Tzipi Livni to take the calls instead.

Herzog made the allegations during an address to the annual meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, Channel 10 reported.

“As Bibi [Netanyahu] drops in the polls, so his lies increase,” Herzog said and went on to attack the prime minister’s plans to speak to the US Congress next month, an event strongly opposed by the White House, by most Democrats and by many in the US Jewish community.

“From day to day it becomes more clear that Bib’s speech to Congress will just be destructive,” Herzog said of the address, scheduled for March 3, which has worsened already strained ties between Jerusalem and Washington.

Netanyahu will urge lawmakers to increase sanctions on Iran in an effort to force an agreement that would cripple the Iranian nuclear program.

Herzog, whose Zionist Union list merges his Labor party and Livni’s Hatnua party, criticized Netanyahu’s handling of efforts to see Iran’s nuclear aspirations halted. He quoted a US official as saying that the prime minister had leaked and misrepresented things from the negotiations with Tehran.

“Iran is becoming a nuclear threshold power and Netanyahu is busy with election spin in the Congress at our expense,” he said, hinting at accusations that Netanyahu’s true goal in scheduling the speech was to boost his elections prospects. The Knesset elections are set to take place on March 17, two weeks after the prime minister’s address.

To illustrate the sorry state of Israel’s ties with the US under Netanyahu, Herzog related alleged events in the cabinet — of which he was not a party — during crises including last summer’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to Herzog, when US officials would call to speak to Netanyahu, he would avoid picking up the phone. Instead, the prime minister instructed Livni, who as his coalition partner at the time held the position of justice minister, to answer the calls as she was the only cabinet member from whom the international community was interested in hearing.

The comments came alongside other declarations from Herzog lauding Livini’s capabilities, after Netanyahu claimed on Wednesday that the Zionist Union was hiding Livni because she would be such a disaster for the country.

Under the terms of the deal between Labor and Hatnua, should the Zionist Union form the next coalition, Herzog will serve as prime minister for the first two years of the four-year term, followed by two years with Livni at the helm.

Regarding a Palestinian state, Herzog said that his party was not “rushing to a solution.” He said he would initiate a process with Arab leaders including Jordan and Egypt. On the issue of settlements, he said, “We will freeze construction outside the settlement blocs and get West Bank blocs agreed upon by the international community.”

Regarding Jerusalem, he said it will always be united, but that under Netanyahu Jerusalem has already been divided by walls and he is not sure that can be reversed.