By GIL HOFFMANNETANYAHU NEVER wanted a broad government, even when establishing one would not have involved his personal fate, let alone these days, when it would have diluted his persona power and prevented his trial’s delay.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized on Wednesday for offending people who stutter when he made fun of Blue and White leader Benny Gantz on Tuesday night at the Likud’s opening campaign rally at the Jerusalem International Convention Center.The apology came after Netanyahu played a video of Gantz stuttering when talking about his accomplishments: “Before, it was us or them, but now, it’s us or the-e-e-em,” Netanyahu said mockingly.After AMBI – Israeli Stuttering Association protested, Netanyahu said his words were merely intended to show that Gantz lacks accomplishments and had nothing to offer the citizens of Israel. He blamed the media for portraying what he said as offensive.“Unlike how it was presented in the press, my words, of course, did not relate to people of any handicap, and if anyone was offended by what I said, I am very sorry,” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.Meanwhile, the Blue and White Party began a special campaign in the Ethiopian immigrant sector on Wednesday. The campaign began after Ethiopian-born MK Gadi Yevarkan defected last week from Blue and White to the Likud. Netanyahu greeted Yevarkan warmly at the event launching the Likud campaign.“Bibi, Ethiopian immigrants are not for sale,” a new Blue and White advertisement said. “OK, maybe only one.”The campaign, which will be headed by Blue and White MK and Ethiopian native Pnina Tamano-Shata, will conduct events all over the country that will be organized by hundreds of volunteers and Ethiopian immigrant leaders. It will accuse Netanyahu of making promises to Ethiopian immigrants before elections and never keeping them.Requests to disqualify lists and candidates from running in the March 2 election had to be received by the Central Elections Committee by Wednesday night at midnight.Larissa Trembovler Amir, the wife of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, asked the committee on Wednesday to disqualify Labor leader Amir Peretz and Meretz faction head Tamar Zandberg from running in the March 2 election for supporting terrorism.Trembovler Amir, who heads the new Fair Trial Party, wrote in her appeal to the head of the committee, Supreme Court Judge Neal Hendel, that Peretz supported terrorism by meeting on multiple occasions with jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving multiple life sentences for murdering Israeli Jews and a Christian monk.
She called Zandberg “a terrorist” because she visited the grave of late Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. Trembovler Amir said Zandberg identified with and showed support for a mass murderer and efforts to destroy Israel, since she proudly displayed pictures of herself at the grave in Ramallah.“There is no doubt that the actions of Peretz and Zandberg showed support for terrorism and the struggle against Israel, while opposing Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, so they should not be allowed to run,” Trembovler Amir wrote.By Wednesday evening, four requests had been made. Free Trial against Peretz and Zandberg, Labor faction chairman Itzik Shmuli asked to disqualify Trembovler Amir’s party, Likud MK Ophir Katz requested that the committee block Balad MK Heba Yazbak from running, and the Ani Ve’ata Party asked to disqualify Yisrael Beytenu.There is expected to be a majority among the parties in the Central Elections Committee for disqualifying both Fair Trial and Yazbak when hearings are held on January 29. The Supreme Court will then convene to make a final decision.
