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President Isaac Herzog warned Tuesday of “violence rearing its head” and pleaded with Israelis not to “cross red lines” during campaign season, noting that both previous periods of Jewish sovereignty were destroyed by internal hatred.
“In recent days, we have once again seen dangerous violence rearing its head across the country,” he said, in a brief televised address days after the Knesset dispersed ahead of October 27 elections.
The president did not go into further detail, and it was not immediately clear to what he was referring. Recent weeks have, however, seen unruly behavior by ultra-Orthodox demonstrators protesting the military draft, as well as violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
“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,” Herzog said. “I call on the people of Israel, in a clear voice: Remember that elections are not a civil war.”
The president warned of “internal and external” threats to the integrity of elections, and urged law enforcement to act against all such threats.
He noted a meeting he held earlier this month with Shin Bet chief David Zini and Central Elections Committee chairman Noam Sohlberg, which followed backlash over comments from Zini about being loyal to the current government.
At the meeting, the participants stressed their commitment to “ensuring the integrity of the election,” Herzog said Tuesday, and he warned that there are “many elements seeking to sabotage from within, and especially from the outside,” though he did not elaborate.
Herzog said 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 said.
Herzog added that “in the age of social media, the dangers are great.”
“All of us must be thoughtful, careful, and responsible in the content we consume, and all the more so in the content we broadcast,” he said.
His comments came hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared an AI-generated ad that critics accused of attacking Gadi Eisenkot with a reference to his slain son. The premier denied that the young man portrayed in the video was meant to resemble the fallen soldier.
The president called on Israelis to “take an active part in these elections: To listen, to make your voice heard, to show respect, and to vote,” noting that elections are “the pinnacle of a democracy.”
But ahead of the Tisha B’Av fast beginning Wednesday night, which commemorates the destruction of the ancient First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, he urged citizens to remember that Jewish tradition attributes the destruction of the temples, and the subsequent exiles of Jews, to internal divisions. He called on the public not to repeat that trajectory.
“Baseless hatred destroyed our home,” Herzog said. “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 appeared first on The Times of Israel.
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