'Netanyahu has put the State of Israel up for sale,' Herzog charges

Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman, who surprisingly refused to join Netanyahu’s coalition, was sarcastic in his opening remarks to parliament.

By ARIK BENDER, JPOST.COM STAFF
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog, Co-leader of the centre-left Zionist Union, are pictured together as campaign billboards rotate in Tel Aviv (photo credit: REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog, Co-leader of the centre-left Zionist Union, are pictured together as campaign billboards rotate in Tel Aviv
(photo credit: REUTERS)
As the Knesset prepares to vote on the new government’s efforts to expand the government, opposition chief Isaac Herzog on Wednesday assailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “selling the country.”
“Good morning, Benjamin Netanyahu,” he said from the Knesset podium. “Instead of solving the country’s problems, he is selling the country and spending a half billion shekels so that his members of Knesset will stay calm.”
“In a country where a gang of extremists has taken over at the helm, the prime minister is selling the country while we are left to pay for it,” Herzog said.
Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman, who surprisingly refused to join Netanyahu’s coalition, was sarcastic in his opening remarks to parliament.
“I am almost moved,” the former foreign minister said. “Finally I am able to take to the podium in parliament and speak here without regard to coalitional discipline and without the limitations of [being foreign minister]. This is a real paradise.”
Liberman said that the ruling Likud party was busy obsessing over ministerial positions while neglecting the needs of its voters.
“Forty percent of Dimona residents voted for Likud, yet I haven’t heard one word from Likud members talking about [the factories that are shutting down there],” he said. “In recent days, 14 people died in traffic accidents, yet is anyone talking about it? People are only talking about portfolios.”
“Matriculation exams have been leaked,” he said. “Where is the incoming education minister [Naftali Bennett]? People are solely preoccupied with ministerial jobs and deputy ministerial jobs.”