Livni, Herzog slam Netanyahu: He's weak against terrorism
Holding ceasefire negotiations with Hamas is giving them 'the false message that the state of Israel only acts when it's being forced to,' Livni says.
The two new political partners, Isaac Herzog (Labor) and Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) toured Gaza border communities in southern Israel on Thursday, using the opportunity to slam Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for negotiating with Hamas.
"Netanyahu is weak in the fight against terrorism," Livni said.
"Hamas is a terror organization. There's no hope for peace with them and the only way to deal with them is using force," she went on to say. "The prime minister wrote great books on how to fight terrorism, but at the end of the day he's the one talking to them, negotiating with them, which gives them the false message that the state of Israel only acts when it's being forced to."
Livni's new partner Herzog echoed her sentiments, saying "there are no compromises when it comes to terrorism, but there are original diplomatic initiatives, there's the chance to provide hope, there's the need to open Gaza in a process that will maintain our security needs in order to allow peace and security here for good."
"A government's obligation, any government and certainly the one we will head, is to complete all works on active protection (to the south)," Livni promised. "This means the subterranean fence, and the necessary to block anyone who thinks of the option of tunneling towards Israel, its citizens or its soldiers."
Likud hit back at the two, saying that "the citizens of Israel will determine in the elections who will protect the security of the nation and the state - Tzipi and Buji who want to concede, surrender and evacuate, or Benjamin Netanyahu who will fight Hamas and Islamic State and won't surrender to international pressures, heading a wide and strong Likud government."
On reactions to their merger, Herzog said that, "The public's response is phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal. Citizens from all walks of life are surrounding us. This joint leadership, the ability to know how to prove that in politics you can also compromise in order to go other and double your strength, in order to create hope to a camp that wants a change. That is the great success of this move."
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who also eyed a union with Livni's Hatnua party, said the Herzog-Livni union has "at least cleaned and organized the political system."
Speaking to reporters outside his home in Tel Aviv, the former finance minister said that "on the left, there's Labor, Hatnua and Meretz, and on the right - the Likud and Bennett. The next elections will be between right and center, where most of the Israeli citizens are. I call on everyone to go out and vote in the elections."
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