Israeli president urges polarised politicians to ‘lower the temperature’

President Isaac Herzog
appealed to Israeli politicians on Tuesday to “lower the
temperature” amid confrontional exchanges between the new
hardline nationalist coalition government and the centre-left
opposition.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has returned to power
after 12 years as premier until 2021, heads a bloc composed of
his conservative Likud party and hard-right and religious
parties who secured a clear victory in the November elections.
His inclusion of the Religious Zionism and Jewish Power
parties has stirred concern at home and abroad given their
leaders’ calls for annexing occupied land that Palestinians seek
for a state, as well as past agitation against Israel’s justice
system, the country’s Arab minority and LGBTQ rights.
“This is a sensitive and explosive time in Israeli public
life…I appeal to you, elected representatives and citizens
from across the public and political spectrum: Exercise
restraint and act responsibly. We need to calm things down and
lower the temperature,” Herzog said in a Twitter post.
He spoke shortly after Jewish Power parliamentary deputy
Zvika Fogel said that four leading members of the opposition,
including its centrist leader and former premier Yair Lapid,
“are the most dangerous people there are at this moment.
“They are calling for war,” Fogel said in an interview with
public media. “If they were calling for protests, I would give
them every right to protest but they are speaking in terms that
I am the enemy – they are speaking in terms of war.”
“For me that’s treason against the state…, and yes, that’s
grounds for imprisonment,” he added.
Israeli police said they had arrested a motorist for
endangering a group of demonstrators – who Lapid identified as
supporters of his party – in the southern city of Beersheba by
driving onto the sidewalk and halting right in front of them.
In response, Lapid said in a Twitter post: “The government’s
incitement will end in bloodshed.” In a subsequent comment on
Fogel’s remarks, he tweeted: “This is how democracy implodes.”
Benny Gantz, another senior opposition figure and a former
defence minister, urged Netanyahu to rein in his far-right
coalition partners.
“I call on you to condemn the attack on the demonstrators
and the harsh statements and act to bridge the divisions in the
nation and not to deepen them,” Gantz said.
Netanyahu later appeared to take issue with Fogel’s remarks
while also criticising opposition broadsides against the new
government, saying demonising one’s opponents was unacceptable
in a democracy.