PM: Radical Likud will isolate Israel

Kadima spokesperson says Likud, Bibi "will try to come to power and implement extremist policies."

By SHELLY PAZ
The political path the Likud is taking would isolate Israel from the international community, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Tuesday. "The Likud was, is and will remain a right-wing party that will isolate Israel and return us to times that we wanted to escape from," Olmert said of the party list elected Monday in the Likud primary. "If [Binyamin] Netanyahu, [Bennie] Begin, [Moshe] Ya'alon and [Moshe] Feiglin come to power, it will cause significant diplomatic damage to Israel," Olmert continued. "The Likud was a party of peace when I was part of it, and now it is, unfortunately, a right-wing extremist party." Kadima leader Tzipi Livni said the Likud list will weigh down Netanyahu. "Netanyahu is the one who needs to deal with this list now," she said. Eyal Arad, Livni's campaign manager, said the Likud had proved its extreme right-wing credentials the day Moshe Feiglin gained power. Labor chairman Ehud Barak said the Likud list turned out to be more right-wing than anticipated. "This list gives us a glimpse to what awaits us," Barak said, during a visit to the Arab village of Kafr Kara. "This list clarifies that Labor is the only party that should be in the center of a future government - the Labor Party and not Kadima, a party that is hard to tell what it is comprised of, a group of people who merely gathered together and have proven more than once their ability to jump from one party to another. "Kadima, certainly, cannot be the answer to the extremism that has been revealed in Likud's list," Barak added. Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said that the Likud list was, "too white since in the top 17 places on its list there are only two Sephardi MKs, Silvan Shalom and Moshe Kahlon. "Today the Likud proved that it has never ended its quota system for Sephardim and has pushed them back from their natural place," Yishai added. Religious Affairs Minister Yitzhak Cohen of Shas said, "The people of Israel understand today that the Likud is a party whose genetic code does not tolerate pigments, and that their real home is Shas." Knesset Speaker and Kadima MK Dalia Itzik described the results of Likud's primary as, "A sad day for the Likud. All Bibi's stars bit the dust." MK Ophir Paz-Pines commented on Likud's list as well. "Today it was proven that Feiglin is the one that controls the Likud and not Binyamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has lost control over the Likud and his attempts to present the Likud as a moderate party have failed," Paz-Pines said. "The Likud elected an extreme right-wing list that includes Gideon Sa'ar, Gilad Erdan, Bennie Begin, Reuven Rivlin, Moshe Ya'alon, Yuval Steinitz and Moshe Feiglin. This list doesn't offer the citizens of Israel any vision or hope in any issue and competes the political stances of Habayit Hayehudi [The Jewish Home Party]. The Labor Party and its team constitute the only serious alternative to Likud," he said. Meretz Chairman MK Haim Oron said that "the Likud's true face" had been revealed. "The hooking up between Feiglin's people and Likud's rebels creates an extreme right-wing list," Oron said. "The public will now have to choose between the Likud, and an alternative that will work for a peace agreement, that will work with the United States and the entire world and that will cope with the economic problems that were created by Binyamin Netanyahu," Oron said. "We have woken up this morning to a horrible right-wing, Feiglinist list that is controlled by the Likud rebels, who will thwart any chance of a peace agreement," Meretz MK Zehava Galon added. "Meretz is again proving to be the only sane alternative." The Likud issued a statement in response that read, "The Likud is the most balanced party. The Likud will negotiate for peace and unlike Kadima, will do it without abandoning Sderot and Ashkelon. We are the party that made peace with Egypt."