Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister and a co-leader of the Zionist Union, promised to re-build Israel’s relations with its Western allies, which she said were shattered during the reign of current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, if she wins the election on March 17.
Livni said the alienation of the United States and Europe from Israel is the threat to Israel’s national security. According to Livni, this happened because of Netanyahu’s “hawkish” politics towards Iran and Palestine.
She said that the world does not understand Netanyahu’s politics, especially towards Iran and Israeli settlements in Palestine. No allies will support Israel without first supporting its policies, Livni said.
“Netanyahu says that everyone is an anti-Semite. I say, sure, there are anti-Semites, but the problem is that nobody understands his politics,” Livni said.
Livni and Isaac Herzog and the two leaders of the Zionist Union, a center-left political alliance, established in December 2014 after the merge of the Israeli Labor Party and Hatnuah. If the Zionist Union wins the election, Livni and Herzog will rotate as prime ministers.
Polls published on Friday projected that the Zionist Union will win by four seats in the Knesset over Netanyahu’s Likud – 26 to 22, according to newspaper Yediot Aharonot, and 25 to 21, according to another publication Maariv. The latter newspaper also found out that 72 percent of Israelis think that the country needs a change of direction, regardless of who becomes the next prime minister.
