Lieberman: Elections pass, threats Israel is facing are permanent
Yisrael Beytenu leader repeats calls to put an end to Hamas rule in Gaza: 'We can't afford a military operation that disrupts daily lives every two years'; Zionist Union leader Livni: I fear Netanyahu and Bennett will lead us to a binational state'.
While elections pass, the threats Israel is facing are permanent, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman said at the Ynet studio on Tuesday morning.
"Yesterday I visited Netiv HaAsara and you can see Hamas from the window shamelessly building fortifications. This has to stop. People can't raise their children with Hamas (operating) in front of them," the foreign minister said.
He repeated his call for Israel to put an end to Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, saying that "the country can't afford a military operation that disrupts daily lives every two years... we have to take down Hamas, we have to give terrorists the death penalty, we have to restore our deterrence."
While Likud leader Benjamin Netanyhu also said his first call after the polls close would be to Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett, Lieberman said he will not rush to call other party leaders.
"We released our basic positions. Netanyahu knows what we want - death penalty to terrorists, eradicating Hamas rule and ensuring the Supreme Court can't throw out Knesset laws... I think most of the voters in the national camp support the same positions, even though they didn't dare present them."
The foreign minister also slammed the Joint Arab List, saying they were "taking advantage of democracy to destroy the State of Israel from within."
"The only thing they have in common is their hatred of Israel," Lieberman said of the Joint List.
He condemned the Arab party for failing to denounce a comment made by one of its spokespeople, who said at an elections panel that the Islamic State was imitating the Zionist movement.
Zionist Union leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, who also visited the Ynet studio, urged voters to cast their ballot for their party, branding the elections as a battle between Zionism and extremism, hope and despair.
"I fear (Bayit Yehudi leader) Bennett and (Likud leader) Netanyahu and this entire group will lead us to a binational state," Livni said in an interview at the Ynet studio.
"Netanyahu wants to form a government with Baruch Marzel, and that's a complete disaster," Herzog said of the far-right candidate on Eli Yishai's Yachad list.
Livni also addressed her announcement on Monday that she was foregoing her rotation agreement with Herzog, saying "We're two people who don't think about the chair... if this is what brings to replacing Netanyahu, we won't let it be an obstacle. Netanyahu as is his nature is not used to a situation in which there are no personal considerations (at play)."
Calling on voters to give their support to the Zionist Union, Livni said Netanyahu "doesn't have 61 seats in his pocket, that's why he's so hysteric... the bigger we are, the bigger the chance of building a coalition."
Herzog said he and Livni were keeping in contact with the leaders of all of the other parties, "but no one is willing to do or talk about anything until there are clear results."
Turning to a topic not commonly discussed during this election campaign, Herzog said the Palestinians' move at the UN Security Council and their attempt to join the International Criminal Court "can be reversed... we can do that by starting a regional move."
"We know how to pull Israel out of its isolation," Livni vowed. "We'll create, with the international community, agreements on issues that are important to us and (Palestinian President) Abbas will know that... it'll be us and the world against Hamas and against Abbas and his exaggerated demands."
Maj. Gen. (res.) Yoav Galant, a candidate for Knesset on behalf of Kulanu, said Tuesday morning that his party has “ten percent of the budget of, say, another center party, yet have ten times more enthusiasm – and that has an effect.”
Galant declined to comment on the controversy surrounding a tape recently distributed by Likud in which Kulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon seems to endorse Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister – a tape that was actually recorded years ago, when Kahlon was still a member of Likud.
“I am involved with what happens in the party, not what happens in others,” he said. “I am currently involved in bringing people to the polling stations and things are looking very good. Our people are dispersed from north to south. There is a whole lot of energy out in the field.”
Galant also said that undecided voters are people who were not satisfied with the party for which they previously voted. “We didn’t exist last time, so our chances here are higher, and we understand this. We estimate that the results will be better than what all the recent polls show.”
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