Netanyahu pleads for Likud votes to keep him in office

Netanyahu is “not sorry for advancing the elections because the government was at a point where it didn’t function.”

Speaking to Channel 2 anchor Yonit Levi in an unusually contentious interview, Netanyahu is sure that “most of the public wants me as prime minister, but they don’t know that I am not elected no matter what – only if Likud wins more mandates.”

He warns right-wing and center voters that voting for parties like Kulanu and Yesh Atid out of the belief that Netanyahu will in any case be the prime minister is false, since he will need a wide gap over Zionist Union in order to easily establish a coalition.

Levi covers a wide range of issues with the prime minister. Here a few key points of his answers to some of her questions, which closely mimic answers he gave Ya’akov Eilon on a Channel 1 interview aired at the same time:

• On Meir Dagan’s criticism – “It was not bothering him when he twice asked for an extension of his duty when I was prime minister.”

• On diplomacy with the Palestinians – “We know that diplomatic process is a code word for ceding land. Those who say we can evacuate territory and the lines on the map don’t matter, do not know what they are talking about.”

• On former caretaker Menny Naftali – “The matter is still in court and I prefer not to comment.”

Levi finally asks Netanyahu about the film with designer Moshik Galamin and his wife Sara, where the prime minister’s wife takes the interior designer on a surreal tour of the dripping faucets and moldy walls of the Prime Minister’s Residence: “Wasn’t it a bit ridiculous?”

Netanyahu, in response, shirks responsibility: “Sara is flesh and blood… it was Galamin who proposed it.”