Labor pans Netanyahu speech: PM leaves no hope for peace

Labor Leader Shelly Yacimovich says the prime minister is trying to paralyze talks and does not want to reach an agreement.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich 370 (photo credit: Artiom Degel)
Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich 370
(photo credit: Artiom Degel)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s pessimistic attitude is dangerous, opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich said Monday, following his “Bar-Ilan Speech II.”
“It looks like Netanyahu was sucked back into the extreme Right of his party and the Bayit Yehudi, and isn’t aware of the hope for an agreement that is spreading through the public," the Labor leader stated.
Such an agreement, Yacimovich added, “will ensure a Jewish and democratic state for generations and will prevent a perilous scenario of a binational state.”
On Sunday night, Netanyahu addressed Bar-Ilan University’s BESA Center for Strategic Studies, focusing his speech on the need for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people in order for there to be peace.
Yacimovich quipped that Netanyahu seems to have gone back in time instead of giving good news and trying to create a more optimistic, less dangerous reality for Israelis.
The Labor leader added that she received information the current negotiations are not going well, and that the low number of meetings with the Palestinians show an attempt to paralyze talks and not reach an agreement.
MK Omer Bar-Lev, also of Labor, criticized the speech, saying Netanyahu “sounds like a broken record and not a leader with a vision.”
According to Bar-Lev, Netanyahu cares more about what the Palestinians say or don’t say, instead of what is in Israel’s interest and what Israel does.
“It sounds like Netanyahu doubts Israel’s power to initiate and protect the Zionist vision of a strong, safe and democratic state with a Jewish majority,” Bar-Lev stated.