Histadrut Chair Arnon Bar-David called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to declare elections in February 2025. Bar-David said, “Elections must be declared. Not now, in another year, but let’s declare elections. February 2025, decrease the pressure now.”
Bar-David said that he had gone to the protests outside the Knesset building on Sunday. “I saw what was going to happen in Jerusalem and I couldn’t sit at home,” he said.
He also criticized Netanyahu on the topic of conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews, an issue that is dividing Netanyahu’s cabinet. “The role of the leader is to make decisions,” Bar-David said. “What will happen if, with the war in the background, we finally solve the conscription crisis? Will the government fall? Let it fall. The state before everything.”
Bar-David said that he would have resigned after Oct. 7 if he were Netanyahu. “I would have resigned 30 times over if what happened on Oct. 7 happened on my watch,” he said.
In an interview on Tuesday at the Union of Municipal Corporations conference, Bar-David said that he would not call for an industry-wide strike against the government. But in a different interview with Channel 12 news, he said, “What would I have the industry strike for today? If there is a struggle in which all the public goes out to the streets, you’ll see me and all my people joining the struggle.”
Bar-David said that other members of Netanyahu’s Likud party also want to see elections called. “People in the state of Israel are afraid to speak, he said.” “People from all the bodies are coming to talk to me. Behind the scenes, Likud people are also talking to me. They have different opinions from what’s known. There are more than five Knesset members from Likud who are speaking behind the scenes about changes in the Likud. Unfortunately, they don’t have enough strength to stand up to Netanyahu. They’re afraid. It’s impossible to keep managing the state of Israel in the way that it’s managed now.”
“We need to reboot the state of Israel after Oct. 7,” Bar-David said, reiterating his call for new elections. “Anyone who doesn’t understand that is either blind or a mindless fanatic.”
