ISRAEL-ELECTION/CAMPAIGNS Israeli leaders hold last-minute campaigning

Record ID: 347329

  • Title: ISRAEL-ELECTION/CAMPAIGNS Israeli leaders hold last-minute campaigning
  • Date: 16th March 2015
  • Summary: HAR HOMA SETTLEMENT, JERUSALEM (MARCH 16, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CONSTRUCTION ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU APPROACHING PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYING: "The truth is simple and clear: If Tzipi and Bougie (referring ot his rivals Tizpi Livni and Isaac Herzog) form the next government, here on these hills, we will
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABEG4REHPK1JAJWARYFYCNOVRN
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, trailing in opinion polls, used a strategic Jewish settlement he helped found as the backdrop on Monday (March 16) for an election eve bid to win back right-wing votes.
    Faced with the projected Zionist Union lead, Netanyahu has in the final days of the campaign ramped up appeals to disaffected supporters who have shifted their allegiance to smaller right-wing parties to "come home" to Likud.
    "The truth is simple and clear: If Tzipi and Bougie form the next government, here on these hills, we will have a second 'Hamastan' (referring to Hamas)," Netanyahu said referring ot his rivals Tizpi Livni and Isaac Herzog.
    "We prevented it. We prevent it. We develop here great neighbourhoods for tens of thousands of Israelis. We are committed to it," he added.
    Netanyahu was accompanied by Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.
    "But they (Tizpi Livni and Isaac Herzog) will give in. The huge support coming from abroad, from tycoons, from the Left, governments, it's only because of one reason - because they know that Tzipi and Bougie will, if they are prime ministers in Israel, will surrender in every front," Netanyahu said.
    His main challenger, Isaac Herzog, co-leader of the Zionist Union, said on Facebook that "Israel will be stuck with Bibi" unless voters turned out on Tuesday for the centre-left alliance, which polls predict will take 24 to 26 seats in the 120-member parliament, compared with 20 to 22 for Likud.
    Far right leader Naftali Bennett campaigned in Jerusalem's famous Mahne Yehuda market.
    "We want a strong Israel, we believe in Israel, we believe in the land of Israel and we don't apologize for it," he told media and hurried for a prayer at Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall.
    Forty-two-year-old Bennett, has expanded the appeal of his pro-settler Jewish Home party to younger, more secular Israelis and is looking to boost his party's influence in the upcoming election, as an ally of Netanyahu.
    Former Israeli Finance Minister and leader of centrist Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid held his last-minute election rally in Tel Aviv.
    "Bibi, Bougie, they try to cancel the equal sharing of (the economic) burden, to return all the budgets to religious seminaries. This money belongs to the citizens of Israel. It is meant to make schools less overcrowded, it is meant to help single mothers, it is meant to help everything which is important to the citizens of Israel. Only a big and strong 'Yesh Atid' can prevent this sale. This is why we are here. This is why we are deployed all across Israel. We will not let it happen," Lapid told his supporters.
    No single party has ever won an outright majority in Israel's Knesset and the party leader with the best chance of forming a coalition would lead the new government.
    While admitting he is trailing in the polls, Netanyahu is hoping that right-wing parties can narrow the gap sufficiently for him to be nominated by Israel's president to form the next coalition and win a fourth term as prime minister.
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