http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1c26c782-c72a-11e4-9e34-00144feab7de.html#axzz3U1Iqmdjk
Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming that a multinational conspiracy is seeking to bring down his government as he embarks on his final week of campaigning ahead of next week’s general election.
“There is a huge worldwide effort to bring down the Likud government,” Mr Netanyahu was recorded telling party activists in a report aired by Israel’s Army Radio on Tuesday.
The remarks by the Israeli prime minister are the latest of several controversial comments made in recent days by politicians in Mr Netanyahu’s rightwing camp, and come as his Likud party struggles to control the campaign agenda and pull ahead of Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union, its centre-left challenger, in next Tuesday’s ballot.
The prime minister was echoing remarks by his fellow Likudnik defence minister Moshe Ya’alon, who on Sunday accused “English-speakers” of masterminding a massive effort to rally opposition votes. “There is an unprecedented campaign here to encourage leftwing and Arab voters, and English-speakers are the ones doing it,” Mr Ya’alon said.
“If you ask me who will be the next prime minister, I will tell you I don’t know,” said Rafi Smith, an Israeli pollster. He pointed out that in Israel’s last election in January 2013, which returned a surprising gain for the centrist party Yesh Atid, one in four voters decided how to cast their ballot on election day.
While the polls show the two parties running neck and neck, there have been signs in recent days that Mr Netanyahu’s campaign — which received only a slight boost from his controversial speech in Washington last week — is struggling. On Sunday Likud — under attack from parties farther to its right for concessions made to Palestinians in past peace negotiations — said that the notion of creating a Palestinian state was “not relevant”.
The prime minister was also forced to apologise to a union boss at the Israel Airports Authority after Likud aired a video showing a dock worker commiserating with a Hamas militant about how the prime minister’s policies had hurt them, according to a report by the Ynet news service. The video angered trade unionists, some of whose members served in last summer’s military operation in the Gaza Strip.