Yacimovich: FM's tough talk is 'wild electioneering'

Labor leader expresses doubt Netanyahu intends to build in E1, says Likud Beytenu leaders making promises to gain votes.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Labor party chairwoman Shelly Yacimovich 370 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Labor party chairwoman Shelly Yacimovich 370
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan to build in the E1 area and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s statements criticizing European governments are electioneering, not policy, Labor chairwoman Shelly Yacimovich said on Wednesday.
Yacimovich panned Liberman’s speech at The Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference earlier in the day, in which he said Europe would sacrifice Israel to mollify Islamic radicals “without batting an eyelash,” and that Israel “will not be a second Czechoslovakia,” a reference to efforts to appease Nazi Germany before World War II.
“Liberman’s behavior is corrupt, extremist, wild electioneering. Liberman is a corrupt and dangerous man,” she said at a press conference in Tel Aviv, in which she presented a plan to rehabilitate the public health system in light of the ongoing nurses’ strike.
According to Yacimovich, Liberman and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s weakness is socioeconomic issues, and therefore they are drawing the public’s attention away from such matters.
“Holocaust metaphors and stirring up emotions are not aimed at answering the real questions of our lives here,” she said. “Liberman’s irresponsible words are meant to drag [the public] into an arena in which he and Netanyahu feel comfortable.”
Netanyahu does not really plan to build in E1 in Ma’aleh Adumim, Yacimovich claimed, he just wants the public to talk about E1 as opposed to the nurses’ strike.
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Yacimovich said that criticism from Europe, the recent UN vote upgrading the Palestinian Authority’s status and shaky relations with the US serve Netanyahu and Liberman “in a field in which inciting words are stronger than the real agenda.
“I commit to not let Liberman set the agenda for this election, and ask the public not to let him do so, either,” she said.