Tempers flare in Israel at key debate

The center and left led with domestic issues.

Nachman Shai of the center-left Zionist Union faction—which combines the Labor party and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party—stated that “when it comes to security, I think we are more or less in the same place” as Netanyahu’s government.

Dov Lipman, an Orthodox native English speaker of the moderate Yesh Atid party, underlined reforms his leaders have pushed as part of the current coalition to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into society. Uri Zaki, a member of the far-left Meretz party, took a line on inequality that would not seem out of place at an Occupy Wall Street rally.

Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States and former Netanyahu ally who is now running with the centrist ex-Likudnik Moshe Kahlon’s new Kulanu party, emphasized breaking monopolies to lower prices.

“We didn’t come back to this country after 2,000 years to watch it die for the price of housing and the price of groceries,” Oren said. “It’s not about the nuclear threat, it’s not about Iran; Israelis believe the greatest threat to this country is the social gaps.”