Israel ex-security chief backs Netanyahu election rival

Israel ex-security chief backs Netanyahu election rival
Diskin backs Herzog, as final polls show Netanyahu trailing. Likud still favourite to form coalition government, however, as the US reiterates its support for a two-state solution.
4 min read
14 March, 2015
Herzog tops polls and has been boosted by support from prominent former security officials [AFP]

A former head of Israel's internal security agency has backed prime ministerial hopeful Isaac Herzog, who tops opinion polls ahead of Tuesday's Israeli general election, criticising incumbent Binyamin Netanyahu for his record.

 

"Why is this the moment to give Herzog a chance? Mainly because Netanyahu has failed in almost every area and because Herzog is the better alternative," Youval Diskin, who headed the Shin Bet agency from 2005 to 2011, wrote on Facebook.

 

Netanyahu has campaigned for the general election on a

     Netanyahu has failed in almost every area.

- Youval Diskin

security mandate, casting himself as the only person capable of leading Israel against the threat of Iran and regional jihadist groups.

 

But Diskin criticised the premier on his safety record as well as his approach to peace talks with the Palestinians, which the former security chief said were "conducted with astonishing ineffectiveness".

 

He said he was against the prisoner swap in 2011 that saw Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit released in return for hundreds of Palestinian inmates.

 

"Netanyahu freed dozens of terrorists, several of them dangerous," he wrote.

 

Diskin also criticised the most recent Israeli military campaign in Gaza last year, where more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, the vast majority civilians, which he said "had achieved no decisive result" against Hamas militants.

 

The Zionist Union, a coalition of Herzog's Labour party and the centrist HaTnuah led by former chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, has made a show of the support it has received from Israel's security sector, traditionally a key voter influence.

 

Former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin has joined the Zionist Union list and is tipped to become defence minister if Herzog is the next prime minister.

 

As well as Diskin, the former head of the Mossad spy service Meir Dagan has also publicly criticised Netanyahu's security record.

 

Opposition tops polls

 

The Zionist Union challenge to Netanyahu's Likud party is also projected to win the most seats in next week's general election, final opinion polls showed.

 

Two surveys, issued on Friday night by private television channels, both gave the Zionist Union a four-seat lead over Likud.

 

A poll by Channel 10 showed Likud winning 20 seats compared with 24 for the Zionist Union. Channel 2's results also showed Likud four seats behind, 22 to 26. 

 

Friday was the final day that opinion polls could legally be published before the vote on March 17.

 

The results echoed polls published earlier Friday, which both predicted the Zionist Union would edge out Likud.

 

Those surveys also put The Joint List, a newly formed alliance of Israel's main Arab parties, in third place, with 13 seats.

 

Centre-right Yesh Atid is forecast to win 12 seats.

 

Although consistently trailing in the polls, Netanyahu has come out fighting, and analysts say he is still better placed than Herzog to form a coalition government after the election.

 

Israel's electoral system means that the government is not formed by the largest party, but by whichever party leader can build a coalition commanding a parliamentary majority.

 

Obama 'committed' to two-state solution

 

US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, remains "committed" to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestinians, Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday on the stalled Middle East peace process.

 

"The position of the United States with respect to our long expressed hope, the Republicans and the Democrats alike (and) many presidents of the last 50 years or more, has always been for peace and President Obama remains committed to a two-state solution," Kerry said at a news conference in Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

 

Kerry said that Obama was "hopeful that whatever choice people of Israel make... (they) will be able to move forward on those efforts".

 

The top US diplomat said he would not like to comment more on the issue only a few days before an Israeli general election.

 

On Friday, Kerry held talks on the peace process with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

 

The four discussed creating an environment to "push forward the peace process to reach a comprehensive and just peace in the region," Sisi's office said after they met.

 

Kerry led a bid last year to try to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, but his efforts collapsed amid bitter recriminations by both sides.

 

Last month the United States voiced fears the Palestinian Authority may be teetering on the brink of collapse because of a lack of funding, as Israel withholds taxes and donor aid stalls.