Livni: An evil spirit of fear is passing through Israel

Opposition leader says Netanyahu gov't is talking about "Jewish and democratic values" rather than doing anything to preserve them.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Livni doing a hand thing 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Livni doing a hand thing 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The Netanyahu government is talking about "Jewish and democratic values" rather than doing anything to preserve them, opposition leader Tzipi Livni charged Wednesday morning.
"In this government, I don't see any leadership which is dealing with the Jewish and democratic values of Israel. They're talking about it, demanding that [the Palestinians] recognize [Israel as] a Jewish state, but they're not dealing with how we preserve those values ourselves," she said. Her comments came a day after her Kadima party initiated a special Knesset plenum session, gathering the signatures of 40 MKs to hold a discussion on the subject of “Netanyahu’s failures in the diplomatic, economic and social fields.”
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 "An evil spirit is passing through the country," she went on. "An evil spirit of fear that the leadership is exploiting the threats around us in order to say that the world is against us, and that we should unite over excluding those that are different, and hating foreigners."
Livni opined that Israel is "strong enough to cope with the threats without giving in to our fears," and urged the country not to let "previously marginal views take center stage in order to serve the interests of certain politicians."
The Kadima chair went on the speak about a call from 50 municipal rabbis not to rent apartments to non-Jews. "Anyone who receives money and holds office in the State of Israel, be it governmental or municipal, may not use their position to sow seeds of fear, hate, slander and incitement. The State of Israel can stop them from doing so, and a rabbi who does this sort of thing should cease to be a rabbi," she said.
She detailed a bill put forward by Kadima "which calls for the authority to make indictments [in such cases] to be broadened... to include the attorney-general and mayors."
"We cannot continue this way," she concluded.