Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally launched his election campaign Monday, seeking to stay in power and rally supporters around him because victory was no longer guaranteed amid his mounting legal woes.
“We have to win,” he told hundreds of members of his Likud party in a hotel just outside Tel Aviv.
"We need to get 40 Knesset seats in order to reach that," said the PM, knowing that he now has 30 seats. The audience interrupted him chanting "Fifty... Fifty" then others shouted "Sixty... Sixty."
“I have to tell you — it’s not guaranteed, it’s not in our pocket, it will not be simple. It will be a hard battle,” Netanyahu told the crowd of some 1600 people in a hall that doesn’t fit more than 800.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett demanded Netanyahu be firm in dealing with Hamas instead of transferring funds to it and reopening the Gate of Mercy, which was forcibly opened by Muslims.
Naftali also urged the PM to implement the court’s decision to evict Khan al-Ahmar, south Jerusalem.
In a related matter, Netanyahu's rivals chose to roam in the Golan Heights in their first electoral tour. On the tour, there were General Benny Gantz, former finance minister Yair Lapid, former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.
“We will never return the Golan Heights,” they said.
Speaking in the Golan, Gantz said: "We are now encountering here a terror network, an Iranian front that is sitting on the border with Israel. We know how to handle any threat, in any one of the arenas, for as long as necessary. We will build a responsible and assertive cabinet. We will be unforgiving of any form of aggression against Israel in any of the arenas.
"There are three chiefs of staff and a former minister who was in the Cabinet. [One-hundred and seventeen] years of military experience… We will not be taught how to protect the country and how to fight terror.”
