Zionist Union leader Herzog
Photo: Ido Erez
Herzog: Radicals on left and right leading us to 'Israelstine'
Lapid: 'I want to replace Netanyahu and I'm running for the premiership'; recent poll shows Yesh Atid regaining lost seats from last elections, while Zionist Union loses six seats, and Likud loses four.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) went on the offensive on Saturday night against what he dubbed as "radicals" on the left and right, in an effort to promote his alternative diplomatic plan.
"The public is tired of hearing the radical left wing blaming Israel for the situation without offering solutions that maintain Israel's security, and the radical right wing that forces an unavoidable annexation of masses of Palestinians in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria," he said during a cultural event in Ramat Gan.
"That is why our separation plan is the only initiative that safeguards Israel's Jewish and democratic nature and ensures its security," Herzog asserted.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Photo: Amit Shabi)
"The radical right and the radical left are babbling slogans that would lead us to Israelstine, a Jewish-Arab state from the Jordan to the sea," the opposition leader went on to say.
"We're the only ones proposing a plan that could be implemented tomorrow morning, which would reduce the wave of terror attacks and change reality," he concluded.
Meanwhile, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies.
"The government caused the deterioration of Israel's foreign relations and now it's claiming everything is okay. Not everything is okay. Slowly, a diplomatic blockade is being imposed on us, and the government says 'no, no, everything's excellent.' Not everything is excellent," Lapid said, also speaking at a cultural event.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum)
"I want to replace Netanyahu and I'm running for the premiership. The way to change a sitting government in this country is by working hard over a long period of time, and this is what I'm doing. It's time for the State of Israel to choose the future and not the past," he added.
A recent poll by Channel 2's Meet the Press showed that Lapid's party is recovering from the blow it suffered in the 2015 elections. After dropping from 19 Knesset seats to 11, the poll forecasted a return to 19 seats.
Herzog's Zionist Union, meanwhile, is weakening, losing six of its current seats and dropping from 24 to 18.
Opposition parties Meretz and the Joint List saw no changes - with five and 13 seats respectively, while Yisrael Beytenu gained two seats, rising from six to eight.
In the coalition, the ruling Likud party, which won 30 seats in the last elections, lost four seats in the poll, while coalition partner Bayit Yehudi gained three seats (from the current eight to 11), likely at the expense of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu party, that dropped from 10 to seven seats.
Ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism gained one seat, at the expense of ultra-Orthodox party Shas.
The poll was conducted on March 1-2, 2016, by Dr. Mina Tzemach and Mano Geva from the Midgam Institute, among 500 respondents who constitute a representative sample of eligible voters in Israel.
Ynetnews contributed to this report.
