Israel: Gaza missile triggers war of words between government and opposition

A war of words was triggered on Monday between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu after a missile was launched towards the occupation state from Gaza.

“We must immediately establish a strong, right-wing government that will restore peace and security for Israel’s citizens,” tweeted Netanyahu.

“Mr Netanyahu,” replied Bennett, “on your watch, terrorists [sic] launched 13,000 rockets toward the residents of southern Israel, carried out 1,500 terrorist [sic] attacks, burned down 45,000 dunams of our lands, killed 238 Israelis and injured 1,700 others.”

After all of this, the prime minister added: “What did you do? You transferred suitcases full of dollars to Hamas.”

Netanyahu’s legacy, claimed Bennet, was: “Hamas rockets targeting Jerusalem, lynching in Acre and Lod. Israel in flames. You failed against Hamas. We are fixing the situation.”

Naftali Bennett is already carrying on Netanyahu’s legacy – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

The far-right party added that Bennett appears to have overlooked the fact that he was defence minister “on Netanyahu’s watch” and a member of the cabinet. “The time of your weak government is over, start packing.”

According to the Times of Israel, far-right Religious Zionism leader Betzalel Smotrich sent a request to Knesset speaker Mickey Levy on Monday for a special parliamentary session next week to vote on the dissolution of parliament and the holding of another General Election.

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