Likud MKs angry at Bibi's silence

Opposition leader "trying to improve his reputation in the short term."

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
netanyahu 298.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
netanyahu 298.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Likud MKs criticized party chairman Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday for remaining silent on the issue of whether a state commission of inquiry would be formed to investigate the mistakes of the war in Lebanon. The MKs said that the most obvious candidate to call for a commission to investigate Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz would be the opposition leader, who ran against them for the premiership. They said that Netanyahu had been "strangely silent" on the issue for what they said were personal political reasons. "Bibi knows that if such a commission were formed, it would target him as well," a source close to one of the MKs said of the former prime minister. "He is not usually so quiet and it cannot be that he has nothing to say." Another reason that Netanyahu's opponents suggested for his silence was that acting statesmanlike during the war had helped improve his public image. A Teleseker poll published last week found that if elections were held today, the Likud would rise from 12 seats to 20 "There is no doubt that his behavior does not fit his personality," the source said. "He is trying to improve his reputation in the short term but it is not smart in the long term." Netanyahu's associates said there were enough MKs who had called for a commission of inquiry. MK Yisrael Katz, who has been one of Netanyahu's harshest critics, said that he called for a commission of inquiry before anyone else did.