Goldwasser hints she will enter politics

Wife of the late kidnapped soldier says "I think I have what to contribute, especially on socioeconomic, education, and environmental issues."

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
karnit goldwasser 224 88 (photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
karnit goldwasser 224 88
(photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
Karnit Goldwasser, who became a public figure when her late husband, Ehud, was kidnapped by Hezbollah in July 2006, is leaning towards entering politics ahead of the next general election, Goldwasser said in an interview with Yediot Aharonot over the weekend.
Goldwasser built the celebrity status she achieved as the face of the effort to bring home her husband into a career as a television show host and now as a published author. She said her next step would likely be to use her status to try to effect change in the political world.
Ahead of the last election, Goldwasser received offers to run for Knesset from Kadima and Likud. But she turned them both down.
“I rejected offers because it didn’t fit back then,” she said.
“But time has passed. I have matured. I understood that I will be criticized no matter what, so I might as well go do something. I think I have what to contribute, especially on socioeconomic, education, and environmental issues. From what I understand and feel, politics is not a field you choose. It chooses you. The question is whether it chose me.”
Goldwasser has become close to Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, but she indicated she would prefer to run with a new party.
“I don’t know if I will take the political path, but I think it would be hard for me to do it with the current parties,” she said. “If I get to the Knesset, I can’t be a partner to what they already have. I don’t believe in what is happening there now.”
Goldwasser described her views as “centrist” and then proceeded to attack Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s socioeconomic and foreign policies. She accused him of “destroying” Israel’s relations with countries.
“He dealt with the issue of the Palestinian declaration of a Palestinian state in the UN in the most wrong way possible,” Goldwasser said.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Ma’ariv, former ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman ruled out entering politics.
He said he had received offers, including from existing parties and a party in the process of being formed by journalist Yair Lapid, but he said that at this stage politics was not right for him.
“The world of Israeli politics is cruel and cynical and that makes it too hard for new people to succeed,” Gillerman said.