Opposition leader MK Shelly Yacimovich on Wednesday morning called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to move to new elections and set the date for November 27, 2012.

In a Knesset press conference she announced “70 days ago we were in the election process and today we are at the end of the seven week political circus.”

The opposition leader stated that calling for elections is the “proper, fitting and correct thing to do to permit the public to vote on critical issues without the cloud of the political spins and photo ops.”

Yacimovich added that the current coalition has no agenda other than surviving and as such, it is time for elections. Commenting on the chareidi draft, she pointed out that Kadima and Likud simply could not reach agreement, and “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is a media master and his political spins are synonymous with throwing sand in the public’s eyes.” She blames the prime minister for creating an atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty, and the time has come to make order and to seek to understand just why the prime minister always gives in to Shas. She rejected induction ages of 22, 23 or 26, explaining if she was prime minister she would induct more 18-year-old chareidim, not out of hate but simply the older persons are a burden on the military.

She believes that this can be accomplished by agreement and not be forcing new unwanted realities on anyone, first and foremost in the workplace towards beginning to alleviate the fiscal burden. Yacimovich stresses the need to address social justice, not by being photographed at rallies but by changing realities.

She mentioned the coalition’s budget, calling it a “catastrophe”, warning this will lead to the collapse of the middle class. She feels it is imperative to announce a date for elections, suggesting Nov. 27th before the Knesset breaks next week for summer vacation. “After this the new government, which I will lead will hammer out the new state budget”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)