Labor Party head Herzog assails 'government of failure' over Jerusalem violence

“Thousands of cops and thousands of concrete obstacles won’t be enough to put out the fire that the government permitted to spread,” Herzog said.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
From right, Dalia Rabin, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, Labor Party chief Isaac Herzog, and other party members at the spot where Yitzhak Rabin was shot in Tel Aviv (photo credit: YAEL TZUR)
From right, Dalia Rabin, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, Labor Party chief Isaac Herzog, and other party members at the spot where Yitzhak Rabin was shot in Tel Aviv
(photo credit: YAEL TZUR)
With Jerusalem smoldering in the midst of the latest flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian violence, opposition chief and Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog assailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “government of failure” during a memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv on Friday honoring the slain leader Yitzhak Rabin.
“The government’s policy has brought upon us a major failure in Jerusalem,” Herzog said, with fellow Laborites and the European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, on hand. “It is shutting its eyes. It is being led rather than leading, and it has no plan or direction.”
“Thousands of cops and thousands of concrete obstacles won’t be enough to put out the fire that the government permitted to spread,” Herzog said.
“As Yitzhak Rabin once said, only an uncompromising war against terrorism alongside a determined diplomatic effort will bring security to the citizens of Israel and the residents of Jerusalem,” Herzog said.
Herzog placed a wreath at the spot near the Tel Aviv municipality on which Rabin was gunned down by a religious nationalist assassin.
“The legacy of Rabin needs to be remembered during these times of tension and despair,” Mogherini said. “The only way to ensure security is a peace based on the two-state solution.”