“A false impression exists that we take the needs of Palestinians into account before the needs of the State of Israel,” he said.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said on Tuesday that members of his Zionist Union faction and Labor Party should stop giving the impression that they are always “Arab lovers.”
“A false impression exists that we take the needs of Palestinians into account before the needs of the State of Israel,” he said at an event in Ashkelon ahead of the Passover holiday.
“You have to understand the shifts happening within the Israeli society today – Lapid (Yesh Atid) took votes from us in the polls because, among other things, they are moving further to the right of us in the national consciousness, and that requires a discussion,” Herzog explained.
“What does that mean more ‘right’? After all, we will never be a right-wing party, but what does that mean?” he said.
Herzog went on to explain the implications of the Israeli political shift to the right, saying: “Where do we (Zionist Union) fit into the hearts of the public? Not only do we have experience, we also have the ability to change the country’s current situation, without abandoning the security of Israel, God forbid, and without giving the impression – from what I have heard after meeting with the Israel public – that we always like Arabs.”
Herzog said that this perception is ‘extremely complicated,’ and explained that this issue was a ‘part of the challenge.’
Herzog qualified his argument by saying that these elements of Zionist Union and Labor Party which create a ‘ruling party.’
MK Issawi Freij (Meretz) responded to Herzog’s comments, saying: “The way Herzog leads the Labor Party is a loss to its moral fiber, and the party’s ideological values are long lost, as is any connection to the left and its values.”
As reported by The Jerusalem Post