By Alexander J. Apfel/TPS
Opposition Chairman Isaac Herzog lashed out at Prime Minister Netanyahu for the incessant knife, vehicular, and shooting attacks being perpetrated throughout Israel. Herzog told listeners at a Zionist Union meeting on Monday, December 4 that rather than addressing terror, Netanyahu “has been inciting against Israeli citizens. This is an unprecedented low moral standard.”
While discussing the shooting attack that was committed on Dizengoff Street on New Year’s Day, Herzog described the current wave of terrorism as a third Intifada if a different kind to those thus far experienced. He also added that the Dizengoff massacre was the first kind of attack characterized by tactics resembling those of ISIS and an attack that “demands a new strategy.”
Herzog lambasted Netanyahu claiming that he had effectively forfeited the title of prime minister by failing to respond appropriately and by attributing blame to Israeli citizens.
“Two Jewish civilians were murdered on Friday along with an Israeli Arab from Lod, and what does the prime minister do? He incites against and blames the Arab-Israeli population,” Herzog said.
Herzog said that a real prime minister would not seek to blame others for the barrage of terror attacks in recent months. Rather, “he would take responsibility for what has been occurring in Israel for more than 100 days and he would stop blaming Israeli civilians for his failure. This is not a car accident, it is not a disease, there are no excuses. This is a wave that will not stop,” Herzog warned.
Tzipi Livni, who ran with Herzog on a joint ticket during the last elections, echoed Herzog’s vitriol against the prime minister. “The lack of security for the individual Israeli citizen has reached its highest level. There is chaos and a loss of control everywhere, and the only news that the government provides to civilians is to ‘get used to it’. It is treated as a car accident. The government has simply thrown up its hands in despair and has been seeking to absolve itself of responsibility,” Livni said.
Livni asked rhetorically: “What is a mother supposed to think when she sends her child to school in the morning? Should she take comfort in the fact that the government is telling her that there is a high chance that her child may be run over on the way?”
