Gal-On accuses other party leaders of cynically refusing to come out against alleged corruption in Yisrael Beytenu.
By LAHAV HARKOVMeretz's new ad campaign for the elections titled "A revolution against corruption with Meretz"(photo credit: Courtesy)
Meretz unveiled its election campaign, with the slogan “The revolution is with Meretz,” on Tuesday.The revolution, in this case, means moving from a right-wing to a center- left government, and Meretz’s campaign claims it is the only left-wing party.Party leader Zehava Gal-On expressed confidence that the Netanyahu era will come to an end on March 17, Election Day.“We will have a center-left government and Meretz will be at the ideological forefront. We will be the compass of the revolution,” she said. “We will inject Meretz into [Labor leader Isaac] Herzog’s camp.”According to Gal-On, Meretz will be the extra push needed for a left-wing government.She also called on Herzog, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, Koolanu chairman Moshe Kahlon, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, head of Yisrael Beytenu, to say they will not sit in a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.“A rotation with Netanyahu is defeatist and another name for four more years of right-wing leadership that the public is sick of,” she said.Gal-On also criticized the other party leaders for not openly criticizing alleged corruption by senior members of Yisrael Beytenu and Liberman’s reaction to the scandal, which was to imply that the state attorney and police intentionally went after the party’s officials before elections over the past 15 years.“What kind of message is that?” she asked. “We’re all busy with cynical tactical calculations, and on the way we disgraced the citizens of Israel.”Meretz currently has 16,000 members, more than ever before. The party will hold a modified primary, in which only its 1,000 central committee members vote, on January 16, in which there are a record number of candidates, 25.
