Yacimovich: I support PM to stop rocket fire

Likud MK Akunis calls for ‘Cast Lead 2’; Meretz accuses Barak and Netanyahu of warmongering for election campaign.

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)
Politicians from Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich to Interior Minister Eli Yishai voiced support for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and called to bring an end to rocket fire from Gaza, while Meretz accused Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of talking tough as a pre-election tactic.
“I back the Netanyahu government and understand the complexities of the situation, in which military action and restraint are required,” Yacimovich said. “The IDF does excellent work, and we trust it wholeheartedly.”
The Labor leader added that she supports those in the line of fire.
Shas minister Yishai said Gaza has become a terrorist entity, and Israel must treat it as such.
“The world must know that ships of encouragement to Gaza and the fact that they ignore what happens in Sderot and towns around Gaza encourages terror,” he added.
In a meeting with Kenyan parliament members, including Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said the rocket fire proves Israel cannot take risks in the West Bank, because the distance between Ramallah and Jerusalem is so short that rockets would fall in the capital.
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“It is not our right to defend ourselves, it is a necessity, Rivlin said. “The Palestinians have yet to prove that they take responsibility for themselves diplomatically and in security, in a way that would allow the citizens of Israel and their children to live in security and peace.”
Likud MK Ofir Akunis called “Cast Lead 2” unavoidable if the rockets continue falling, saying “Gaza will tremble.”
“We need to cut off the terrorist warehouse in the Gaza Strip, after the disengagement,” he said.
Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely said “we cannot give the Palestinians the feeling that they have free range because of the election.
We must destroy the terrorist infrastructure and increase our deterrence.”
According to MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beytenu), the time has come to “take apart the hornets’ nest in Gaza once and for all, and allow the residents of the South to get some peace and quiet.”
Meanwhile, Meretz leader Zehava Gal- On took to Facebook to say she “identifies with the suffering of those in the South, who once again are facing a barrage of rockets.”
“I hope they won’t continue to suffer because of Barak’s war with the election threshold,” she wrote, referencing the need of the defense minister’s Independence Party to garner enough votes to remain in the Knesset. “Billboards aren’t enough for Barak and Netanyahu’s campaigns; they are running to war for their election needs.”
Gal-On added that the public will not buy their spin.
Meretz primary candidate and Tel Aviv City Councilwoman Tamar Zandberg held a protest in front of Barak’s house on Wednesday night, chanting “we will not kill or die for the Independence Party” and holding signs reading “this is not war, this is propaganda.”