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Netanyahu: Arab-backed government will be ‘celebrated in Tehran, Ramallah’

“Knesset Members of the Joint List support terrorist organizations and call IDF soldiers murderers,” Netanyahu claimed.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday night assailed the Blue and White party, his arch political rivals, for their apparent willingness to establish a minority government supported by the Arab Members of Knesset (MK), a development he said will be “celebrated in Tehran and Ramallah.”

Netanyahu addressed an emergency event held by his Likud party in Tel Aviv “in a fateful moment for the State of Israel.”

“Blue and White leaders Benny Gantz, Gabi Ashkenazi, and Boogie Ya’alon decided to form a minority government that will rely on the members of the Joint Arab List,” he warned.

“Knesset Members of the Joint List support the terrorist organizations and call IDF soldiers murderers. They also want to prosecute IDF soldiers as war criminals. Benny Gantz, I tell you – they want to prosecute you as a war criminal. The same goes for Ashkenazi and Boogie Ya’alon,” Netanyahu stated, referring to their roles as IDF chiefs of Staff. “What went through your brain?”

Netanyahu quoted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who said over the weekend that he does not want to destroy all the Jews but only the State of Israel, and that the destruction of the Zionist regime meant that the Palestinians would elect their government and remove the Zionist government, in apparent support of a minority government supported by the Arab MKs.

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“I tell you that such a minority government will be celebrated in Tehran, celebrated in Ramallah, it will be celebrated in Gaza. As they celebrate after every terrorist attack,” he stated.

He underscored that he was not talking about all Arabs.

“Arabs can be Zionists and support the State of Israel,” but he added, “[the Joint List] are not Zionists and do not support the State of Israel. Being dependent on them at all times, and especially at this time, is a huge danger to the State of Israel, and it is an unparalleled crisis in the history of the state,” he declared.

While the prospects of the establishment of such a government are slim, Netanyahu has launched a public campaign in recent days to counter such a possiblity.