Herzog: Netanyahu thinks ‘people are plotting against him’

Zionist Union list leader Isaac Herzog on Thursday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of treating public desire to see a change in government as a personal plot against him.

“One of the biggest tragedies of Benjamin Netanyahu is that apparently he constantly thinks that people are plotting against him,” Herzog said in an interview with Israel Radio. “It’s a big problem.”

Herzog’s list has taken a solid lead over Netanyahu’s Likud in recent polls, with only five days left before the elections. He said the public was fed up with the Netanyahu government and wanted to see new leadership at the helm of the country.

“The people of Israel are going to the polls because of him,” Herzog said of Netanyahu. “If they want to replace him that is not a plot. It is the vote of Israel’s citizens, it is a choice that every citizen has regarding the future of the country. It is not a matter of toppling the government, it is replacing the government.”

Amid increasingly unfavorable polls, Netanyahu, who initiated the elections two years early by firing ministers Tzipi Livni — Herzog’s now-partner at the helm of the Zionist Union — and Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid, told supporters Monday that there was “a tremendous effort, worldwide, to topple the Likud government.”

The prime minister’s reelection campaign has been dogged by reports of financial mismanagement at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence, including accusations leveled at his wife, Sara, as well as mounting criticism over his focus on security issues to the detriment of economic concerns.

Interior Minister Gilad Erdan, also of the Likud party, admitted Thursday that Netanyahu had made mistakes during the election campaign. “There is no one who takes action without making mistakes,” he told Army Radio. “Netanyahu — just like Herzog and Livni — makes mistakes.”

Erdan criticized those who fault Netanyahu on issues such as burgeoning housing prices, while ignoring his achievements: namely, maintaining Israel’s security in a volatile region and preserving a stable economy in choppy economic waters.

Recent polls have projected that the Zionist Union list, which merged Herzog’s Labor party and Livni’s Hatnua party, will win three or four seats more than Likud in Tuesday’s Knesset election.

Herzog, who would split the four-year term as prime minister with Livni, would not be drawn into commenting on which parties he would seek for a coalition if elected, nor did he rule out a partnership with Likud.

“I don’t negotiate before elections,” he said. “I assume that the negotiations will start the minute after the results come in and, obviously, I intend to speak with the heads of all the parties.”

Herzog rejected claims by right-wing parties that he had pledged to appoint Ahmad Tibi, an MK from the Arab Joint List who has a pronounced Palestinian national identity, chair of the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

“It is an absolute lie,” he said and pointed out that the Knesset votes on appointments for committee chairs and that it is not solely up to the cabinet. “It is just part of the symptoms of panic sown by Netanyahu and his people.” In a videotaped interview with Maariv, Herzog had said he “won’t rule out” appointing Tibi as a member of the committee.

The Joint Arab list, he pointed out on Thursday, had already made it clear that it had no intention of joining a coalition with Zionist parties, no matter who wins the election.

Herzog condemned comments made by Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman, who argued that the Arab Joint List should not be allowed to run for Knesset. During a TV debate earlier this month, Liberman called the leader of the party, Ayman Odeh, a fifth column and a terror supporter, and urged him to move to the Gaza Strip.

“I find Avigdor Liberman’s assault completely repugnant,” Herzog said. “The Arab Joint List has a legitimate leadership.”

A poll published by the Haaretz on Thursday showed the Zionist Union winning 24 seats in the coming elections, maintaining a three-seat lead over Likud.