The April 9 election will be a choice between a “weak left-wing government” under Blue and White list co-leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz or a strong, right-wing Likud government under his leadership, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to a meeting of Likud ministers and Knesset members on Sunday.
“The media will do everything so the left will win. They waited for an adviser, and now the mountain has become a molehill and that molehill will soon vanish,” said Netanyahu.
“Gantz and Lapid are trying to hide and camouflage that they are leftists. The media is trying to hide all sorts of things about Gantz, and not what you think. They are hiding the fact that a year after ‘Operation Protective Edge,’ Gantz took part in a memorial ceremony for 1,000 Hamas terrorists killed during [the operation.] Look at what the media is hiding about Gantz—that’s left,” the prime minister warned.
According to Netanyahu, “Gantz says he endangered Golani soldiers to avoid harming Palestinians—that’s left. And today, we hear Lapid and Gantz saying that they won’t sit with us in a coalition, but [they will] with Arab MK Ahmad Tibi. Their entire strategy is based on Lapid and Gantz being ‘not left.’ If we make the truth clear to the public, the Likud can close the gap and win,” said Netanyahu.
Also on Sunday, chairman of the New Right Naftali Bennett announced that his party would not support a law that would prevent Netanyahu from facing trial if Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit indicts him.
“Despite the report that we will sit [in a government] with Netanyahu, until there is a final indictment, there’s nothing to discuss,” said Bennett.
