Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog
‘We are considered to be Arab lovers’, says opposition leader
Isaac Herzog attempts to disavow statement: I meant Palestinians; party members slam comments as extreme-right, defenders agree party out of touch with Israeli public.
Isaac Herzog, Zionist Union chairman and opposition leader, caused a political storm Tuesday night after he told party members in Ashkelon that the general public views the Labor party as “Arab lovers.”
Almost immediately after Herzog’s statements, a torrent of criticisms were voiced by a number of his own party members, forcing him to clarify his remarks.
The comment was made in relation to the changing voting patterns in Israel and Herzog’s observation that the Israeli public has shifted further to the right: “We give off an impression and this is interpreted, when we meet the public, that we are Arab lovers,” Herzog said.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Photo: AFP)
Shortly after Herzog’s statements were publicized, MK Shelly Yachimovich (Labor) tweeted a cynically: “Is the response of the head of the opposition appropriate for an extreme right protest?,” Yachimovich asked.
Furthermore, chairwoman of the left-wing social-democratic Meretz party, Zahava Galon, also joined the criticisms yesterday, saying that “the first victim of this kind of doctrine is Zouheir Bahloul,” an Arab MK also hailing from The Zionist Union camp.
Indeed, in a reference to PM Benjamin Netannyahu's controversial comments during the last elections in which he said that the Arabs are "going to the polls in droves," Bahloul himself also expressed his own disapproval, stating that “it would appear that Herzog, inspired by the ‘Arabs flock to the polls’ statement, is also preparing his own juicy campaign.”
He added that “to renounce 20% of the population in such a scathing way, to masquerade as a soft right which winks to the frenzied crowds in the city squares and to feel pressured by every poll that comes out, is not the way to form an alternative government.”
Bahloul went on to conclude that “this is another incomprehensible moral descent of the culture of Yitzhak Rabin’s party. I condemn Herzog’s comments and demand an apology in the name of all Israeli Arabs in Israel.”
The debacle prompted Herzog’s closest associates to responded claiming that his comment was misunderstood and that he was referring to the Palestinians.
Zionist Union MK Eitan Cabel, one of Herzog’s inner circle, came to his defense last night: “The chairman of the Zionist Union camp is correct that a significant number of Israelis claim that we support the stance of the Palestinians even more that we support the concerns and interests of Israelis. I share his opinion that it is important for us to strive to change this,” Cabel declared.
In an effort to set the record straight, Herzog said that he was indeed referring to the Palestinians and that the Labor party were obliged to transform its public image among Israelis. “We are not frightened to deal with problems that we discover when it comes to relations between the public and the Labor party and the Zionist Union camp. One of the problems is the misguided and dangerous notion that people are trying to associate with us that we consider the needs of the Palestinians before those of the State of Israel and its citizens,” he said.
