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At the outset of an election campaign that is widely expected to be close, bitter and brutal, President Isaac Herzog issues a plea to maintain societal cohesion, warning voters and candidates to eschew violence and not to make the race into a “civil war.”
“In recent days, we have once again seen dangerous violence rearing its head across the country,” he says. “I turn to elected representatives, activists, and all candidates from all parties, and demand that you do not cross red lines. Do not turn rivals into enemies.”
He adds, “I call on the people of Israel, in a clear voice: remember that elections are not a civil war.”
Herzog warns of “internal and external” threats to the integrity of elections, and notes that the campaign is especially fraught in the age of social media. His comments come hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared an AI-generated ad that critics said mocked rival Gadi Eisenkot’s slain son.
“In the age of social media, the dangers are great,” Herzog says. “All of us must be thoughtful, careful, and responsible in the content we consume, and all the more so in the content we broadcast.
The president also references a meeting he held earlier this month with Shin Bet chief David Zini and Central Elections Committee chairman Noam Sohlberg – which followed backlash over remarks from Zini about being loyal to the current government – in which the participants stressed their commitment to “ensuring the integrity of the election,” with Herzog warning that there are “many elements seeking to sabotage from within, and especially from the outside,” though he did not elaborate.
In his address, Herzog says Zini and Sohlberg had presented him with “various threats to the integrity of the elections, both internal and external.”
“We presented a unified front on this issue, and we committed to supporting and backing the Central Elections Committee and all our security and law enforcement bodies. I call on all of the law enforcement authorities to stand firmly and effectively against these threats,” he says.
Ahead of the Tisha B’Av fast beginning tomorrow night, which commemorates the destruction of the ancient First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, Herzog urges Israelis to remember that Jewish tradition attributes the destruction of the temples, and the subsequent exiles of Jews, to internal divisions. He calls on the public not to repeat that trajectory.
“Baseless hatred destroyed our home,” he says. “Twice in the history of our people, we merited independent sovereignty in our land. Twice we failed. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
The post ‘Elections are not a civil war’: Herzog warns of ‘dangerous violence’ on outset of campaign season appeared first on The Times of Israel.
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