Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that his political opponents will try to smear him during the campaign ahead of the February 10 , at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, Netanyahu reached out to his rivals. He said that if the Likud won the election, he would invite every Zionist party into a broad national unity government. But he stressed there was still a difficult campaign ahead.
"We won't be dragged into the bad old kind of politics," Netanyahu said. "They will try to find skeletons in our closets. But our campaign will be positive and will focus on the issues."
Netanyahu used the event to showcase "celebrities" who have joined the party, as well as former MKs who came back. Former ministers Bennie Begin and Dan Meridor were received warmly, and Begin's speech received resounding applause.
"In the past 15 years, Labor and Kadima governments made promises, resisted warnings and said they would take calculated risks," Begin told the crowd. "Then they admitted that they didn't know how to calculate the risks. That's what happened with Oslo and the disengagement. There will be no more experiments in Israel."
Netanyahu reached out to the current roster of Likud MKs, who have become increasingly worried about their political futures with each public figure who has joined the crowded field in the December 8 primary.
He asked the MKs to stand up so they could receive the acclaim of the crowd.
"These are the people who went with me into the political desert and raised the Likud banner in tough times," Netanyahu said.
