Democratic Union mocks Likud; Liberman compares party to N. Korea

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman also joined in on Monday morning, comparing Netanyahu's ruling of Likud as being "North Korean."

By ALEX WINSTON
Cardboard cutouts of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside the Likud headquarters, Tel Aviv (photo credit: DEMOCRATIC UNION)
Cardboard cutouts of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside the Likud headquarters, Tel Aviv
(photo credit: DEMOCRATIC UNION)
Following the petition in the Likud Party on Sunday, where its top 40 Knesset candidates declared allegiance to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left-wing Democratic Union activists got to poke fun at Netanyahu by placing 40 cardboard cutouts of the prime minister outside the Likud's Tel Aviv headquarters.
The cutouts represent the 40 candidates who signed the petition.
"The Likud Party officially became Netanyahu's puppet party yesterday," Democratic Union leaders Nitzan Horowitz, Stav Shaffir and Ehud Barak said on Monday. "The same puppets signed a document yesterday declaring that they had lost all ideology, independent thought – and in particular preferred their loyalty to Netanyahu over their loyalty to the State of Israel and its citizens."
The petition of support for the prime minister was initiated by MK David Bitan, declaring that Netanyahu was the only Likud option for prime minister in September's elections. “We, the undersigned candidates on the Likud list for the 22nd Knesset, underscore that we will not receive any dictation from any other party,” the petition said. “Without regard to the results of the election, Netanyahu is the Likud’s only candidate for prime minister, and there will be no other candidate.”
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman also joined in on Monday morning, comparing Netanyahu's ruling of Likud as being "North Korean." He wrote on his official Facebook account, "Likud MKs' disgraceful signing of a North Korean-style statement of loyalty indicates Netanyahu's utter distrust of his party members. Yisrael Beytenu, in the upcoming elections, has one major goal - to establish a broad-based national-liberal government and to prevent the formation of a halachic government [ruled by Jewish law]."
Culture and Sport Minister and Likud MK Miri Regev responded to Liberman in his native language on her Facebook page, writing, "Liberman might understand this better" before writing "the public is not stupid" in Russian. She also accused the former Defense Minister of being a "leftist," writing: "You acted twice to overthrow the right-wing government out of hatred for Netanyahu. The truth is revealed – you are a leftist."


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