Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett on Sunday slammed Zionist Camp heads Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni for failing to condemn the comments made by speakers at Saturday night's leftist rally in Tel Aviv.
Among the worst examples, said Bennett, was leftist artist and author Yair Garbuz who made “inciting” and “hateful” comments about rightists, religious Jews, and others who were underrepresented among the largely middle class and upper middle class crowd that had gathered in Rabin Square to demand that “anyone but Bibi” - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – be put in charge of the next government, said Bennett.
Among the comments Garbuz made were comparing the right to “thieves and bribe-takers, those who kiss the 'lucky charms' and bow down at the graves of the dead" (a reference to haredi and religious Jews who visit the tombs of dead rabbis – ed.), as well as rapists and sexual harassers.
"How is it that this 'minuscule minority is ruling the country?,” said Garbuz, referring to the current Likud government and its partners. “How did this minority become the majority? How did this troublesome gang become so widespread? How is this group digging below us the worst of all tunnels, the tunnels of ignorance? How are they building a tunnel of hatred under us?,” Garbuz said, to the loud cheers of the crowd.
“Last night, something happened at the leftist rally,” Bennett said. “An artist named Yair Garbuz condemned those who were different – those who 'kiss the 'lucky charms' and bow down at the graves of the dead, those who are rapists and sexual harassers, those who murdered Yitzhak Rabin.
“He called us the 'minuscule minority that became the majority,” Bennett said. “I have heard many outrageous things in this campaign, but the word 'minuscule' is ridiculous.
“Here are some of the people in this 'minuscule minority,' Garbuz,” continued Bennett. “IDF soldier Emanuel Moreno, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War, had pictures of rabbis on his wall. He was a part of this minority. And IDF soldier Ro'i Klein, also killed in that same war, cried out what you would call a 'pagan' prayer – the Shema Yisrael (Hear O Israel) prayer, with his last breath.
“This 'minority' are the people who live in Kiryat Shemona, Shlomi, Netivot, and Sderot,” said Bennett. “This is the minority whose culture you decimated for generations – the culture of those who believe that the Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel. This is the minority, my dear Garbuz, who sees the Kotel, the Western Wall, and becomes emotional, like me. I am proud to be a leader of this minority,” he said.
Worst of all, said Bennett, was that “thousands of people stood in the crowd and no one thought to protest. No one said, 'we are all Jews, we are all brothers, what are you doing, for G-d's sake? Neither did Tzipi (Livni) nor Buji (Herzog), in whose honor this rally was being held, say anything. Well, I have news for Garbuz, Tzipi, and Buji – this 'minority' is the majority of Israel. They are the ones who love Israel. They are the ones who love the Torah of Israel, and they do not apologize.
“In nine days, this minority will emerge victorious,” added Bennett. “You, Garbuz and company, think you are part of an intellectual and social elite, something special in the human race. But there's one thing you should realize – for our enemies like Hezbollah, ISIS, and Hamas, you, too, are part of the minority.”