Herzog warns Netanyahu not to meddle in US election

Speaking at the weekly Zionist Union faction meeting, opposition chair Isaac Herzog says that Israeli interference in tomorrow’s US election “will only damage the Israeli public.”

Calling the ballot between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, “the most important election in the world,” Herzog says that Israeli politicians should stay out of the US’s business.

“Recently there have again been reports of Israeli leaders interfering in the elections through overseas proxies,” he says.

“I call on Netanyahu to instruct those close to him to make sure no damage is done,” he says, without elaborating on who he was referring to.

Earlier in the meeting, the first after a rally held by the party on Saturday in memory of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Herzog says that if hatred and incitement had been dealt with appropriately 21 years ago, the assassination could have been prevented.

“I will not allow anyone to spread hatred – not the head of the coalition, not a minister, no one,” he says, referencing coalition chair David Bitan’s statement that Rabin’s assassination was “not politically motivated.”

“Twenty-one years after that terrible night we continue to hear incitement against soldiers, journalist judges, police — anyone who doesn’t think like those spreading the hate,” Herzog says. “We will petition the attorney general, the relevant courts and the supreme court to stop this disease.”

— Raoul Wootliff