PM nixes unity government with Zionist Camp party
Netanyahu blasts Labor-Hatnua party list, says there is a ‘huge gulf’ between Likud and new ‘radical left, anti-Zionist’ political bloc
Marissa Newman is The Times of Israel political correspondent.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday blasted the joint Labor-Hatnua party list — now called the Zionist Camp — for being “anti-Zionist” and representing the “radical left,” and said his Likud party would not sit in a future coalition alongside it.
In a separate statement on his Facebook page, Netanyahu also criticized the party’s foreign policy as being too conciliatory to the Palestinians.
“The Labor Party elected a radical left-wing and anti-Zionist list,” Netanyahu said in a statement on the new line-up. The prime minister said there was a “huge gulf” between his Likud party and the Zionist Camp list.
“We will not join forces in one coalition with people who say: ‘Israeli women don’t need to send their children to the IDF,’ and ‘Hatikva is a racist song,'” Netanyahu said, referencing comments made in the past by Zionist Camp MKs Merav Michaeli and Stav Shaffir.
On his Facebook page, Netanyahu attacked the party for pandering to the international community.
“It’s very easy to receive applause from the international community. All you need to do is give in to international pressure and agree to establish a second Hamastan near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, as Tzipi [Livni] and [Isaac] Boujie [Herzog] want to do,” he said, in reference to a potential withdrawal from the West Bank that would make way for a Palestinian state.
“This is not my way,” he continued, adding that he will “protect Israel’s security and national interests” in his role as prime minister.
Earlier on Friday, Livni, the Zionist Camp party’s No. 2, indicated that the joint Labor-Hatnua list would not sit in a unity government with Likud.
“Unity is not a technical matter of giving out portfolios, it must revolve around [a unified] approach,” she told Army Radio. “The way of Netanyahu and [Jewish Home head Naftali] Bennett is a path that leads the State of Israel to decline in every aspect. It is important to understand who and what the blocs are in this election — there is one bloc of the radical right, which includes Likud and Bennett, whose way is very clear. Their way is not our way.”
Livni’s remarks came on the heels of three separate polls which placed the Zionist Camp in the lead over Likud, albeit slightly. A Maariv poll on Friday gave the center-left party a three-seat lead over Likud (25 and 22, respectively). A Channel 10 poll gave it 24 seats to Likud’s 20, while a Channel 2 poll gave the Zionist Camp 25 and Likud 23.
