Binyamin Netanyahu accuses Israeli election rivals of being weak on security

Binyamin Netanyahu has accused his centre-left rivals of being weak on security, as the latest opinion polls suggested the opposition could be in with a shot at forming Israel’s next government.

The prime minister is facing a growing challenge from Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni's Zionist Union – formerly Labor party – in the run-up to the election on March 17th, with the party either tied with or slightly ahead of Mr Netanyahu's Likud in the polls. With Mr Herzog's campaign gathering momentum, analysts believe Mr Netanyahu is being put increasingly on the defensive not only on the economic and social issues on which the centre-left traditionally focuses its campaigns, but on the core security issues on which the prime minister prides himself – and on which most Israelis cast their votes.

At a carefully staged photo opportunity in Jerusalem yesterday, Mr Netanyahu posed with Nir Barkat, the city’s rightwing mayor who on Sunday personally subdued a knife-wielding Palestinian man who had stabbed and wounded a Jewish pedestrian in the street.

Different kind of courage

Mr Netanyahu said: “Societies terrorised by terror need to show a different kind of courage – they need the courage of governments that will fight terror, not knuckle under it.”

He added: “The leftist government of Tzipi and Buji [Mr Herzog] will fold under the pressures.”

Mr Netanyahu also criticised Ms Livni for condemning the building of Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

“A Likud government under my leadership will repel the many pressures we receive [on] Jerusalem, and we will continue to develop Jerusalem,” the prime minister said. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015)