Livni: Netanyahu dishonest, weak

After being chastised by Netanyahu for text messaging at Knesset, Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni slams prime minister for not keeping promises

Roni Sofer|Published: 12.01.10 , 18:27

Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday, accusing him of being weak and not keeping his promises.

"If you know that you're going to divide this country, how can you send a young couple to build a house in a place that you know they will have to leave?" She said during a special Knesset session. "How can you look into the eyes of abused women, whom you promised a budget that you didn't deliver. How can look into the eyes of students, whom you promised a tuition-free year, which didn't happen?"

Netanyahu set off Livni's wrath when he reprimanded her for sending and receiving text messages during his speech in support of the referendum law. "I see that the chairman of the opposition, while I'm talking, is always looking at her cell, reading and typing." he said.

'Culture of lying'

When it was her turn on the podium, she lashed out in response. "How low," she said. "I would have read out to you the text messages that I received but you would get offended - it's what the public thinks about the embarrassing performance that took place here; he is anxious, he is weak.

"The prime minister knows he has nothing to say," she added. "He thinks that when he speaks loudly, he says things. Let's talk about the truth…You sat in the next room as finance minister while I was the absorption minister. You said, 'We can't bring the Falashmura to Israel.' You hid behind my back. In your place I at least would have kept quiet on the subject. When was the last time you told the truth?"

Livni implied that the time has come for elections, and said that the party that Netanyahu heads, Likud, has a "culture of lying."

"How could you sell your principles for survival?" she asked. "You were quoted in one of the newspapers as saying a sentence, and I don't know if it's true - 'If I get through 2011, I will survive the rest of the term.' This is your whole truth."