MK (Gesher) Orly Abekasis-Levi, who the polls show will not receive a sufficient number of votes to enter Knesset, on Sunday called a press conference, during which she attacked Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, as his predecessor, Minster of Health (Yesh Atid) Yael German, announcing that she plans to request to become the nation’s next health minister as a condition to joining a coalition following elections.

“The health system in Israel is collapsing, thousands of people die every year, unnecessary deaths, quietly, families are impoverished, and others are losing their loved ones, or are wasting their time and health in line, hoping to receive basic medical treatment,” she added, declaring ” Gesher headed by me will be the balance sheet and whoever wants to be prime minister will have to allocate the budget required for a national emergency plan to save the health system and appoint me as the responsible health minister.”

“The source of the money will not come from raising health tax or from citizens’ payments, and the high health tax already does not cover most of the health expenditure and raising it will not solve the problem.”

At this stage, Levy-Abekasis moved to attack the deputy minister. “We are asking the public to decide whether he wants Litzman as health minister and that everything will remain as it is today or choose me as minister of health and get a revolution,” she said.

“Litzman is not indifferent to public health. The finance minister is not indifferent either. But none of them will break a government. None of them will make a coalition crisis over health,” Levi said.

She added that her party would be committed neither to the right nor to the left. “we will become the balance. If Netanyahu or Gantz want to form a government, they will have to appoint me as the health minister and give me the tools and budgets that will provide the citizens of Israel with proper health services. Without this, there will not be a right-wing government, a centrist government or a left-wing government.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)