By GIL HOFFMANCan he win again? Prime Minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escalated his rhetoric against alleged vote forgeries in the Arab sector, changing his tense in interviews from warning that Arab-Israeli voters “are stealing the election” to telling Army Radio on Sunday that “they stole the election.”Netanyahu made the accusation after reports surfaced of forgeries in the Arab sector in the April election, saying that he believes it may have cost the Likud two Knesset seats and resulted in another election being held.An investigation published in Maariv on Friday found that out of 82 incidents of forgeries published months ago in the newspaper, only two of the 82 who complained about the alleged forgeries were contacted by police.The head of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Judge Hanan Melcer, turned down a request from Netanyahu to hold an “emergency meeting” on the alleged forgeries.Blue and White leader Benny Gantz asked Melcer not to meet with Netanyahu, saying that it would interfere in the election and aid Netanyahu in harming the election process. Gantz requested a meeting himself with Melcer in order to persuade him not to meet with Netanyahu.Melcer ruled that neither Netanyahu nor Gantz would get to meet with him, and told them that if they have a problem they can send him a letter.After Melcer refused to meet with him, Netanyahu went to the Knesset and in a live Facebook post, called Melcer’s decision not to address the issue “scandalous.”Gantz responded to Netanyahu’s speech at the Knesset by sharply criticizing the prime minister.“After trampling the image of the police, prosecution, and High Court of Justice, Netanyahu is resorting to a targeted assassination of the Central Elections Committee and removing the legitimacy of the entire democratic process,” Gantz said.
