Protest leaders: Likud finally woke up
Following calls within ruling party to discuss housing protest, campaign leaders say Likud members 'finally realize something has changed among the people and are concerned about the next elections'
Ahead of the mass rally planned for Saturday evening, housing protest activists are encouraged by increasing voices within the Likud, calling Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu to step in before the party loses power.
Regev Contes, one of the protest movement's leaders, told Ynet on Friday: "When you see Likud members, who up until now were under strict coalitional discipline, warn the prime minister – you can tell that they have woken up and realized something has changed in the people. They are starting to think about the next elections.
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"They will have to explain to their voters why a people's party like the Likud is acting on behalf of the elites. They will have to wake up before it's too late," he said.
Another member of the protest movement leadership, Roi Noiman, called on Likud members to attend the rally on Saturday.
"I invite the public at large, including members of the ruling party, to come and express their positions, because this protest is not about party alignment."
'Bibi doesn't represent people'
Also on Friday, Opposition leader Tzipi Livni chided the government for its faulty priorities, saying "governments whose leaders do not represent the general public's welfare, instead sacrificing resources and ideology for the sake of small sectorial parties, generates complete mistrust in the system," she said during a Kadima council meeting in Petah Tikva.
"The political system is the platform to create change and generate solutions. Netanyahu took the pendulum to the extreme. Kadima is a center party, and has different priorities," Livni added.
Protest procession on Rothschild Boulevard (Photo: Dudu Azulay)
The opposition leader stressed that Kadima is in favor of a competitive market "as long as it serves the good of the public. "Free market for free citizens – not a free market as an ideology that does not serve the benefit of the citizens."
On Thursday, Likud activists expressed concern over losing hold of the government during a party conference in Or Yehuda. One activist slammed Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, saying "Yuval killed the people, go home. He doesn’t come from the people, he comes from the faculty in Haifa."
Meanwhile, Beit She'an Mayor Jacky Levi warned of a massive turnout during the next rally: "Last week there were 150,000 people, not including the development towns and the haredim. If they come out, they might reach a million people.
"Wake up," the mayor exclaimed, "I don't suggest saying it's a leftists' protest. If we don’t listen, we'll be in the opposition. The ground is burning beneath us; the cottage cheese protest was only a symptom."
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