Tag: Tamar Zandberg

Trying to keep it together: Attempting to hang on to his foundering coalition, Prime Minister Netanyahu has begun to portray the downfall of his government as a blow to Israel’s security. First to the stump: Netanyahu’s speech is widely covered as the opening shot in his re-election campaign. The idea that the coalition has to stay together because of secret security issues was actually floated almost a full day before Netanyahu’s speech by Israel Hayom’s Amnon Lord, in what some may see as yet another sign of the close relationship between the paper that works as a Netanyahu mouthpiece. Netanyahu “can’t hold the rope at both ends, keeping his coalition stable and putting down Naftali Bennett at the same time,” columnist Moti Tuchfeld writes, calling on the prime minister to give the defense job to Bennett. Bennett and Jewish Home No. 2 Ayelet Shaked are slated to give a statement to the press at 10:30 during which they are widely expected to announce they are resigning, thus toppling the government. Uri Ariel, another Jewish Home minister, tells Army Radio that the two are ready to resign, meaning the government could fall as early as Wednesday. Peace plan deferred: Early elections will likely give the US administration another reason/excuse to delay its long-awaited peace plan, ToI’s Eric Cortellessa writes. “Netanyahu’s right-wing government is dying. “As long as the situation in Gaza is ongoing, the Knesset committee won’t take up the bill to dissolve the Knesset,” he says, essentially threatening to put Israel in an indefinite totalitarian state of emergency.

Leaders of the political left and center, speaking at the annual rally marking 23 years since the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, decried what they said was the government’s systematic use of “incitement” and “fearmongering” rhetoric and its persecution of political rivals to score political points, at the cost of dividing the country. We’ve had it with pinning blame and marking traitors,” he said. Peace was destroyed.” Netanyahu, she said, “has turned incitement into his chief tool to leave the peace camp defeated, controlled, crushed…. Not all of the right murdered Rabin. I feel an obligation to warn that when the government says any who think differently are traitors and accomplices of the enemy, it is leading us down a dangerous path. The minister said assassin Yigal Amir “wanted to kill the man to kill a policy, even at the price of killing democracy and civil war.” Hanegbi said, “Many in the public, and I among them, believe the [Oslo accords] were a terrible mistake. The right didn’t murder Rabin, Yigal Amir did.” He added: “I’ve had it with the false accusations of the left. Right-wingers should not attend a rally whose purpose is to defame the right.” Netanyahu tweeted: “It is regrettable that the memorial rally for prime minister Yitzhak Rabin has been turned into a political gathering. Those who champion freedom of speech try to silence any who don’t agree with them.” For the second year in a row the rally was organized by the Darkenu movement, which describes itself as a group seeking to “empower the moderate majority of Israelis to exert influence on government policy and on the public discourse.” The organization said ahead of the rally that it would “focus this year on warning against an atmosphere of divisiveness, incitement and inflamed spirits ahead of the upcoming general elections.” Noting the “violent and incendiary public discourse” that was prevalent ahead of Rabin’s killing 23 years ago, the group said elected officials from across the political spectrum would be called upon to “maintain a civilized rhetoric.” Ahead of the rally, roads around the square were closed off beginning at 5:30 p.m. Right-wing extremist Yigal Amir shot Rabin to death on November 4, 1995, at the end of an event the prime minister had held in Tel Aviv to demonstrate public support for his efforts to make peace with the Palestinians.