Labor party candidate Professor Yossi Yonah is a member of far-left extremist group B’Tselem, it was revealed earlier this week – and Likud MK Danny Danon believes that Yonah’s membership is an indication that Labor is moving leftward.
“Labor is becoming a branch of Meretz,” Danon stated, in an interview with Arutz Sheva Wednesday. “Who would hide under the banners and slogans of the ‘Zionist Camp’ (alt. name for Labor – ed.) when on the list is a man with post-Zionist views?”
Yona is not the only Labor candidate to have controversial views, he added. Other candidates with far-left views include MK Merav Michaeli and veteran Arab journalist Zohair Bahloul – and still others whose true views are kept conspicuously quiet during the elections campaign to appear more mainstream.
“This is the new face of the Labor Party,” Danon said. “It is not a Zionist camp but a post-Zionist camp”.
Danon noted that although the public does not see the true face of Labor, as he put it, “the public knows it’s there” – and, he added, even Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog’s positions are more left than they appear.
Proof, he stated, is in Labor’s sudden announcement that they would pull their support for a push to bar MK Hanin Zoabi from the Knesset – despite a public show of support for the move.
“Every minute they change their position,” Danon stated. “I guess at the last minute they will flee from voting [against Zoabi].”
“This is the true face of Labor.”
Danon also referred to the conflict between the Arab heads of Labor and Herzog. Arab Labor members have demanded that Herzog remove the Labor-Hatnua joint name of “Zionist Camp” from the campaign – because it is a term contrary to their positions on Israel. The problem, Danon said, is that Herzog is ultimately trying to hide Labor’s ‘true’ ideology.
“The ‘Zionist camp’ name is not telling the truth,” Danon said. “Bahlul is telling the truth, and the public is not stupid; he sees the true face of the Labor Party.”
“They don’t need to be embarrassed that they have moved to the radical left, but should [instead] compete with Meretz and show their true DNA.”
Danon was then asked about the fact that Labor and Meretz have made an effort not to attack each other during this elections campaign – a sharp contrast to the right-wing bloc, where the parties are heavily competing against each other.
“In practice, within the [political] blocs, there is always internal stress,” Danon reflected. “Maybe on the left they show it in different ways and in our camp, the right, we’re more direct and straightforward about it, but certainly there is internal stress.”
“We in Likud want to be bigger, so that we won’t wake up in the morning and find that Buji [Herzog – ed.] and [Tzipi] Livni have the government,” Danon said. “For me this is a very disturbing idea.”
Danon concluded by expressing hope that, at the very least, Zoabi will be thrown out of the running for the 20th Knesset.
“She does not belong in the Israeli Knesset,” he said. “This section of the law [anti-incitement laws pertaining to the Knesset and elections – ed.] is designed specifically so that people like Zoabi will not be in the Knesset.”
“She crossed the line,” he added. “If we allow her to run it will be a ‘green light’ for another wave of incitement against the state and against the IDF.”
Representatives from Labor responded to Danon’s claims by calling him “the worst Deputy Defense Minister ever” and added “that he has nothing important to say but nonsense and incitement.”
“He will have time enough to learn how to behave in a dignified manner after spending four years benchwarming for the Opposition,” they added.
