Israel: Thousands of people hold anti-govt protests, demand new elections and return of hostages
anti-government protests in several parts of Israel on Saturday night, calling for new elections and the return of hostages held in Gaza, The Times of Israel reported.
On Tel Aviv's Kaplan Street, David Grossman, one of Israel's best-known authors, urged the people of Israel to fill the streets with demonstrations and fight for their country in a poem he read to protesters.
He read, «There's someone and something to fight for. For such a gift, from life, we will nevermore receive… Now's the time to rise, to live. To be a people or not to be. To be people or not to be… All hangs by a thread.»
Former Shin Bet chief, Yuval Diskin called Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu «the worst and most failed prime minister in the history of the state.» Diskin, who served as Shin Bet intelligence agency chief from 2005 to 2011, demanded elections at the earliest possible opportunity.
«For many weeks, I rejected requests to join the protests. Something deep inside me told me that it wasn't time yet, that maybe it wasn't right to change governments during a war, and that unity was the most important thing,» The Times of Israel quoted Diskin as saying.
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«But I find myself amazed, every day, by the government's uselessness, the failed management of the war, the lie of 'total victory,' the total evasion of responsibility, the destruction of our strategic relations with the United States,
