Herzog: Extremists on both sides turning Israel into ‘Israstine’

The extreme left and extreme right in Israel will result in a bi-national state called “Israstine,” opposition leader Isaac Herzog said Saturday.

Speaking at a cultural event in Ramat Gan, Herzog said that “the public is tired of hearing the radical left blame Israel for the situation without offering any solutions that safeguard the country’s security, whilte the extreme right is imposing upon us an inevitable annexation of the Palestinian masses in Jerusalem and West Bank,” according to the Walla news website.

The Zionist Union leader lambasted both sides “for spouting slogans that will lead us to ‘Israstine’ — a Jewish-Arab state between the Jordan [River] and the [Mediterranean] Sea.”

Meanwhile, Zionist Union MK Erel Margalit called at a similar event in Beersheba on Saturday for Herzog to hold internal leadership elections for the Labor party, which forms the major part of the Zionist Union faction, and which Herzog also heads. He also urged former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi to join the party.

Postponing the primaries for two years, Margalit said, would be a “grave mistake.”

He said: “When we do have primaries, I will consider whether to stand as party leader. There are two parties and two alternatives. I call on Gabi Ashkenazi — decide where you are and join; we will challenge the leadership of the country together. I also call on voters to return to Labor and not stream to [centrist Yesh Atid party leader] Yair Lapid.”

Lapid, who served as finance minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s last government, has been working to present himself as a viable alternative to the prime minister. This week, he and former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, who heads the Yisrael Beytenu party, held a joint conference in which they accused Netanyahu of deliberately trying to destroy Israel’s foreign service.