Launching campaign, Labor’s Michaeli says far-right Ben Gvir poised to ‘destroy’ Israel

Center-left Labor party leader Merav Michaeli attacks far-right MK head Itamar Ben Gvir, who she says is poised to destroy Israel.

Of Ben Gvir, Michaeli says “I saw upfront the same violence, incitement and racism that threatens us since they threatened Yitzhak Rabin, those who were then ‘rogue weeds’ are today MKs. And they can be ministers.”

Ben Gvir, the leader of the Otzma Yehudit faction within the Religious Zionism party, first captured public attention when he was filmed bragging about stealing an emblem from then-prime minister Rabin’s car in 1995. “We got to his car, and we’ll get to him, too,” the then-teenager bragged, shortly before Rabin’s assassination.

Michaeli, whose party is across the ideological spectrum from Ben Gvir, says that his actions might bring “destruction” to Israel, while speaking at her campaign launch event in Tel Aviv.

The two were both at Ramat Gan’s Blich High School earlier today, where Michaeli made comments echoing the sentiment.