BICOM

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin warned of a growing rift in political discourse when he opened the fifth session of the 20^th Knesset yesterday.

President Rivlin warned that ‘the threat of internal division will always be the greatest threat of all’. He said Israeli political culture is the discourse of “one against the other” and that one side of the camp exists only as the negation of the other camp. “Real people can have several beliefs at the same time. That is their strength, not their weakness,” he said, and added that “our complex views are also what binds us together”.

In his speech, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listed his government’s diplomatic, security and economic achievements and said Israel’s security forces will continue to act against the Iranian regime in Syria. He said: “We have raised the average income to an all-time high, we have raised the minimum wage to an all-time high, and we have raised public investment to an all-time high. The courts are not in any danger … in every democracy, there are arguments on the balance between the authorities and within the authorities. What bothers you is not the loss of democracy, but the loss of the leftocracy.”

Netanyahu highlighted Israel’s unique relationships with Russia and the US. He said his “direct, frequent contact” with Russian President Vladimir Putin to confront the “complex, very difficult challenges in our region” has enabled a “trust” between the two countries like never before. He added that Israel’s most important relationship is with the US.

Tzipi Livni, the Leader of the Opposition, said: “If we were once outraged when citizens called the prime minister a traitor, now the prime minister calls his own people traitors. I know that with you [Netanyahu] it’s simply for cynical political purposes, but you’re causing people to hate their brothers.” She concluded that separation from the Palestinians was “necessary to keep Israel a Jewish majority country”.