We could lose this election: Israel PM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged that his right-wing Likud party risks losing the upcoming parliamentary elections.
“Our security is at great risk because there is a real danger that we could lose this election,” Netanyahu told Israel's Jerusalem Post newspaper on Thursday.
The Israeli premier further warned that a potential loss by his party in the polls, due on 17 March, would translate into a change in the Zionist regime’s policy with regard to Iran and Palestine.
The remarks came two days after an opinion poll by Israeli research institute, Panel Politics, showed that the Zionist Union - an alliance of Labor party, led by Isaac Herzog, and Hatnua party, led by former foreign minisiter Tzipi Livni - could earn 24 seats against Likud’s 21 projected seats in the Knesset (Israeli parliament).
“If the gap between the Likud and Labor continues to grow, a week from now Herzog and Livni will become the prime ministers of Israel in rotation, with the backing of the Arab parties. That will cause such a monumental shift in policy that it is a danger,” Netanyahu said.
He also criticized Israel’s opposition figures for not supporting his speech at the US Congress on March 3, in which he called on Washington not to negotiate what he called a “very bad deal” with Tehran over its nuclear program.
The Israeli premier further claimed that no other person but him can stand the pressure on Israel and back the regime’s interests, saying, "Not only can’t they (the rivals) stand up to pressure, they don’t want to stand up to the pressure. They just want to yield and give in.”
Last week, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv to voice their anger at Netanyahu’s policies, calling on him to step down ahead of the parliamentary elections.
Netanyahu is currently under domestic and international pressure over his controversial stance on the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany -- over Tehran’s nuclear program.
The Israeli premier’s critics say his attempts to disrupt the positive process of Iran’s nuclear talks will only result in the Tel Aviv regime’s growing isolation in the international community.
SSM/KA/SS
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