Itzik predicts election will be held this year; Sheetrit slams cigarette tax rise; Likud responds: Public still in trauma from Kadima rule.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANKadima bumper sticker 311(photo credit: Courtesy)
Kadima unveiled a new campaign at a Knesset press conference on Wednesday in an effort to highlight how Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government has harmed Israeli citizens.Speaking the day before Thursday’s two-year anniversary of the 2009 election, Kadima unveiled a new sticker with the slogan “Two years of Netanyahu, Israel loses.” The sticker is illustrated by a soccer score “Bibi 2 : Israel 0.”RELATED:MKs across the spectrum blast gasoline price hike Shama-Hacohen calls Steinitz a 'retard' over price hikes “This government will not survive because even though it technically has enough support in the Knesset, it has lost its legitimacy and governments that lack legitimacy do not last,” Livni said in an answer to a question posed by The Jerusalem Post about how she intends to bring down a government that looks stable on paper.Livni said that Kadima MKs would personally go out on the streets, hand out stickers and join protests in an effort to persuade Israelis to demand elections.“Every day this government is in power, the people of this country lose,” she said. “There is no leadership in Israel. We have a prime minister who caves into pressure and who does not know how to make decisions. Israel is weak, doors are closing on us around the world and more Palestinian flags are flying around the world.”Asked why Kadima does not join the government to help with the economic challenges, Livni said: “Will it help the public to have even more ministers and deputy ministers than there are already?” Kadima faction head Dalia Itzik accused Netanyahu of abandoning Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and breaking his promises about not raising taxes.“Netanyahu is the prime minister of taxes,” Itzik said. “He has raised more taxes than any other prime minister despite promises. He is the worst prime minister that Israel has ever had.”She predicted that there would be an election in the year 2011.MK Meir Sheetrit, a former finance minister, outlined how Netanyahu’s economic policies have “screwed the poor and helped the rich.”
He said that to help the poor, Netanyahu should raise income taxes in the highest brackets and taxes on corporations while cutting the price of bread, public transportation, and cigarettes.When questioned after the press conference about how raising taxes on cigarettes has harmed the poor, Sheetrit said that “punishing people who smoke is wrong.”The Likud said in response that “Israel is lucky its prime minister is Netanyahu, who is experienced and has made Israel an island of stability and security – economically and diplomatically – and not Tzipi Livni.”“The public is still in trauma from the three years of Kadima,” a Likud spokesman said. “All Kadima brought us was thousands of rockets, many police files, two wars and one big failure.”
