Netanyahu draws fire for offensive archived Likud propaganda
Archived campaign propaganda is found in the Likud headquarters that offensively defamed Netanyahu's adversaries in the 2015 elections, and the response soon comes; Leader of the Opposition Herzog, who in one picture is photoshopped in drag: 'This shows Netanyahu's very problematic nature.'
As part of an examination conducted on the election campaign, investigators found, among other things, pictures of opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog (Labor) portrayed as a woman with the title "revolution," and another picture of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is presented as calling for people to vote for MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union).
Herzog said on Monday that the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was behind the humiliating campaign.
"The exposure is definitely unsettling, but it mainly shows Netanyahu's very problematic nature—serious flaws in his personality that accompany his entire public work," Said Herzog. "What began as the whispering of incitement into the ear of Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri against many (of his political adversaries) has since become a policy aimed at delegitimizing, inciting and separating the people.
"First it was the disabled, then it was the single mothers, then the leftists, the secular, the kibbutzim, the Arab public, the courts, academics and cultural figures, journalists, media people and civil servants. Every season brings with it another for Netanyahu to sacrifice."
"Netanyahu is strong in propaganda and weak in deeds," added Livni.
The head of the Likud's information campaign in the 2015 elections, Nir Hefetz, said that "the materials never reached me, and in any case they did not reach Netanyahu, and if they had, the prime minister would not approve them.
"If such materials have been produced, they are probably shelved at a lower level and never approved for publication, like many other ideas put forward by advertising people during the campaign and shelved. The prime minister is absolutely opposed to any such campaign."
The Zionist Union party responded Tuesday to the Likud campaign.
Herzog published in his Twitter account a combined picture in the Likud's propaganda photo of him is seen next to a famous propaganda photo of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin with a kaffiyeh atop his head.
The picture read "The Bibi (Netanyahu) Method," meaning that there is no big difference between the incitement that preceded Rabin's assassination and the picture that was shelved from the campaign of the ruling party ahead of the 2015 elections.
The details of the campaign were published on Channel 2 last night and caused a great uproar in the political system. Opposition parties accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite the denial, of methods designed to divide.
Finance Minister and leader of the Kulanu party Moshe Kahlon expressed his reservations about the matter.
During a conference held at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Kahlon said, "This is terrible. Unfortunately, they used dishonorable tactics.
"They also went against me and took a recording of me from 2013 when I was in the Likud and called to vote for Netanyahu. They cut it and passed it on (as if it was) from 2015. The judge fined them NIS 20,000, which I then went to collect. I do not give up."
(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)
