Peretz points finger at Netanyahu, says responsible for trickling of terror into Tel Aviv

"We have nothing to look towards in a government led by Netanyahu," Peretz says.

By CORAL BRAUN
Updated: JUNE 12, 2016 22:58
Amir Peretz (photo credit: REUTERS)
Amir Peretz
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Zionist Union MK and former Defense Minister Amir Peretz pointed fingers at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Saturday afternoon cultural event in Modi'in, blaming the PM for the trickling of terror attacks into central Tel Aviv, and criticizing his leadership integrity.
"After ten years of leadership under Netanyahu, one can hold him responsible for the fact that terror attacks take place in central Tel Aviv," Peretz said. "His reaction to the shooting attack in Sarona was akin to a response of a common clerk, and not one of a visionary leader."
He blamed Netanyahu's government for reacting equivocally in the wake of every terror attack, taking the same steps yet expecting different outcomes, instead of acting courageously in an effort to break the political deadlock with the Palestinians.
 
"We have nothing to look towards in a government led by Netanyahu," Peretz said. Under his leadership, "a gaping ideological chasm exists both in the political realm and in the socioeconomic realm."
The MK said that he made clear to party leader Isaac Herzog that under no circumstance would he join a government coalition headed by Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is not "pretending" to associate himself with the far-right simply due to coalition considerations, Peretz claimed. "He really is one [on the far-right] and has no intention of changing, or of compromising his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
He expressed a strong distrust in Netanyahu when addressing the addition of Yisrael Beytenu, the party headed by now Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, into the coalition.
"The fact that one day he [Netanyahu] conducts negotiations with Herzog and then the next signs an agreement with Liberman proves that the only thing that guides him is political survival."