Rally at Rabin Square
Rally at Rabin SquareHezki Ezra

MK Yoni Chetboun, who is the number two candidate on Eli Yishai’s Yachad-Ha’am Itanu party, on Sunday evening spoke at the nationalist rally in Tel Aviv where he sharply criticized Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni, the co-heads of the “Zionist Union”.

Chetboun began his speech by describing the Zionist dream and the return to Israel and then added, "But there are some who call themselves leaders and want to shatter that dream. They are uncomfortable with this dream. They used to be called the Alignment (a group of several leftist parties that ran together in the 1970s and 1980s -ed.). Then Labor. And now the Zionist Union.”

"And what does this Zionist Union want? It wants to break the Zionist dream. It wants to divide the country. It wants to give in to [Palestinian Authority chairman] Abbas," stressed Chetboun, adding, "It is a thing for them, their obsession to fly to Capitol Hill via business class and ask the nations of the world for mercy."

“We are here to preserve this dream. We will not let Tzipi and Buji lose our country,” he continued to the sound of applause from the audience. “We are loyal to Israel, to Israel as a whole. Not to Area C or to one bloc or another, not because of the threat of missiles on the Ben Gurion Airport or five minutes from Kfar Saba. Not because of the threat of terrorists of Hamas or Abbas. We are loyal to Israel, period.”

Chetboun turned to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and told him that Yachad pledges to help him apply Israeli sovereignty over all parts of the land of Israel.

“We pledge to help you stand firm, as you did at the U.S. Congress, even in the face of American and European pressure, and undertake to help you maintain and strengthen the Jewish identity of the State of Israel,” he said.

Also speaking at the rally was MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), who said, "We came here to express our sympathy and our pride in Israel. The left presents what is happening here as hell on earth. We hear familiar voices and promises from them today. We heard these promises in 1992 and 1999. They promised peace and we received rockets, we received diplomatic attacks, the Marmara and the Goldstone report.”

"A government that is not a rightist government will go for more agreements. Only a right-wing government will be faithful to the heritage of 3,000 years," she added.

Sharon Gal, a candidate with Yisrael Beytenu, referred to last week’s leftist rally which was held at the same location.

"A week ago this place was full of red flags. Tonight there are a lot of blue and white flags. We say loud and clear - we Israelis are proud, love Israel and love the IDF. Unfortunately, today Hamas stands without fear in front of our soldiers, we will return the fear to them and maintain the Land of Israel,” he declared.