RAMALLAH: Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday promised that a government led by his Likud party will never divide Jerusalem nor cede Golan Heights.
“Jerusalem will not be divided. Gamla (the historic capital of the Jewish Golan) shall never fall again,” Netanyahu said during a tree plantation ceremony in the Golan Heights.
Should Kadima win the Knesset elections, he said, “We will not stay on the Golan Heights, we’ll just keep ceding (land). You strike peace with the strong, not with the weak. Israel with the Golan is a strong nation, not one that gives away its assets.”
Israelis go to the polls tomorrow, and candidates are trying to attract an apathetic public toward their policies. The Likud chairman’s son, Avner, also took part in the tour and helped his father plant a eucalyptus tree.
“Years from now, my son will bring his children here and tell them how his father planted this tree, that is so rooted in the ground, just like we are rooted in the Golan,” said Netanyahu.
Control over Jerusalem, which Israel captured during 1967 war, has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians are seeking to set up a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. But the Jewish state says the city is its eternal capital.
Talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in 2000 after Damascus declined an Israeli offer to withdraw from the territory, saying the Israeli offer did not encompass the full territory. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert renewed indirect talks with Syria last year via Turkish mediation. But the talks have been frozen due to political turmoil in Israel.
Netanyahu has been fighting hard since Friday to win back voters who have unexpectedly been defecting to far-right Israel Beiteinu party over the past week, a trend that has narrowed the gap between Likud and Kadima.
Likud is said to be feeling the pressure that it might lose to Kadima or win by a small margin that might lead Israel Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman to recommend that Kadima’s Tzipi Livni form the next government.
Netanyahu, his associates concede, is unsure what steps Lieberman will take after the election. The Israel Beiteinu chairman has been intentionally vague about his recommendation to the Israeli president. Netanyahu, who limited his media interviews during the campaign, has stormed the local radio stations since Friday.
He is expected to increase his appearances as much as possible in the run-up to the election as he works to win back votes from Israel Beiteinu.
A final poll taken for Israeli Channel 10 television on Friday, before a moratorium on surveys took effect, found that Likud’s lead over Kadima had fallen to only two seats. The Dialog poll gave Likud 27 seats, Kadima 25, Israel Beiteinu 19 and Labor 14.
In a related development, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef lashed out at voters who plan on casting their ballots Tuesday for Lieberman’s Israel Beiteinu faction. “Whoever votes for Lieberman gives strength to Satan,” Yosef said in his weekly sermon late Saturday.
“These are people who do not have Torah, people who want civil marriages, shops that sell pork, and the army enlistment of yeshiva (Jewish seminary) students,” Yosef said. “My heart is heavy. Heaven forbid people support them. This is completely forbidden. Whoever does so commits an intolerable sin. Whoever does so supports Satan and the evil inclination.”
