Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is “tired” and has nothing else to offer, opposition leader MK Yitzhak Herzog (Zionist Union) charged on Saturday.
Speaking in Tel Aviv, Herzog predicted that 2016 will be an election year and explained that "the coalition has 61 members, some of whom act as if they do not have a god. The coalition’s functionality is impaired and problematic and therefore I believe that elections will be held in 2016. This coalition will not be able to survive because the frustration and the fatigue are constantly bubbling inside.”
“The Israeli public is concerned because for many years they have been fed the paradigm that ‘we live by the sword’ and ‘we don’t have a partner for peace’, but I have a real obligation to present an alternative, and I and the camp I head are the only alternative to Netanyahu,” he continued.
Herzog said the current wave of terrorism should be concluded with security-related or diplomatic measures. "This is an era of a regional revolution and radical Islamic movements in the form of ISIS, Hezbollah, Iran and so on," he said.
"I do not mean to say that a diplomatic move could put an end to the Islamic Jihad, but it certainly could bring the moderates to denounce it. Some of the terrorist attacks are being carried out in direct relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and some are the result of a radical jihadist brain washing. But precisely now is the time for negotiations with the Palestinians and with the moderate elements of Islam and the region, including countries like Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states,” added Herzog.
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, he claimed, “prevented us from forming a big bloc in the last election, which was supposed to bring victory, and the next time we will not allow him to do so. I work hard all the time to build as large a bloc as possible before the next elections - this is the only option to replace Netanyahu. I speak with a lot of factors, movements, and other groups in order to form a broad democratic mosaic, and I will not go into details who exactly I am speaking to. Netanyahu is tired and he has nothing more to offer to the public."
Responding later on Saturday to Herzog’s remarks, the Likud said, "Buji is degrading the role of leader of the opposition. Less than one day after a serious attack in Tel Aviv and while security forces are working on all fronts in order to capture the terrorist, instead of backing the security forces and the government, the opposition leader seeks to gain a few voices on the left and is offering us again concessions and withdrawals. This is not responsibility, and certainly not leadership.”