Politicians from the right and the left participated on Sunday in a joint election conference of the Youth Movement of the Agricultural Union and the Ezra Youth Movement.
Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who is running for the Knesset as part of Israel Resilience-Telem, said at the conference, "Today, anyone who supports the prime minister is on the right and everyone else is a leftist traitor. There is a wild attack against the rule of law.”
"In the media there is more complexity, the cases [involving Netanyahu] are connected to the media, and the whole thing is about integrity and modesty. When I resigned [as Defense Minister], I reached the conclusion that I could influence and so I called for alliances. Therefore, we are running with Benny Gantz and the agenda is the slogan 'Israel comes first,' because the division between right and left is irrelevant," continued Ya’alon.
Ya'alon elaborated on some of his positions. "A free market and justice in welfare is not a matter of right or left but of genuine leadership. In our view, this is not the old right-left, but rather where we want the State of Israel to be. The arguments are on the margins.”
"We want to form the next coalition and we want to be an alternative in order to provide a good future for the State of Israel," stressed the former defense minister.
MK Revital Swid (Labor) also took part in the conference and said that she is unfazed by the bleak polls predicting a low number of seats for her party.
"The polls are not everything and our strengthening will continue. What happened to us? It was all because of Gantz's speech and the fact that people want change. If you want the same rule then how do you vote for Gantz? Those who are not on the right have no party other than Labor, because within the Israel Resilience party there are wonderful people, but they are proponents of the entire land of Israel, they are in favor of annexing and transferring money to the territories, and those who support Labor cannot vote for them. We have responsibilities, mistakes were made because the Labor party has an entire agenda, and when our leader isn’t appointed prime minister we replace the chairman, and that hurts us,” she said.
"The other parties have replaced very few leaders, and this is something we have to pay attention to, it created backstabbing within the party, and that is what hurt us. We have a new team and we are all behind [Avi] Gabbay and hope that we will form the next government."
Former IDF general Gal Hirsch, chairman of the Magen party, said at the conference, "I am entering politics in order for us to have a better country. When I agreed to take up the post of police commissioner, the gates of hell opened, and I went through and am still going through a campaign aimed at thwarting my appointment, and I understood that I was being denied the appointment of the next police commissioner. That’s why I am asking for the public’s trust here.”
"I think we need something new, new parties with old people or old parties with new people. We deserve a different leadership. I learned that if you want to influence and make a change, you probably need a new party. The political system crashed to pieces because everyone was falling apart, all the parties split. I looked into the possibility of joining other parties and reached the understanding that it simply would not work. My political world view is on the right, but economically it is on the left, so I could not find a place to be. I am on the right when it comes to political issues and security, but I want a country in which, in my economic space, the state does not evade its social responsibility.”
"Is there anyone in the Likud who cares about the social side? Show me a social-security party on the right. I have an unequivocal position in the security field, but we have lost the responsibility of bringing people together and making them a part of our society. Yair Lapid tried to help but ultimately destroyed by forcing the haredim to enlist in the IDF. There are citizens who are like us in the Arab society as well,” said Hirsch.