Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday confirmed that he would be advancing the Likud race to January 31.

Netanyahu stated that by holding the race early,the Likud "won't have to get mired in internal struggles and we will be free to handle the security, diplomatic, and economic issues before us."

Following Gilad Shalit's release, and with a Labor primary in the past, the prime minister isn’t going to pass on an opportunity to strengthen his hold at home.

"Great statesmen as well as friends of the Jews and of Zionism" warned Ben-Gurion that declaring a Jewish state in 1948 would bring an invasion of Arab armies and a "grave and difficult battle", Netanyahu said.

"He understood full well the decision carried a heavy price, but he believed not making that decision had a heavier price," Netanyahu said.

In his speech, Netanyahu said Ben-Gurion deliberated long and hard before he decided to declare a state.

Although Netanyahu didn’t mention Iran or its nuclear program in his speech, it was quite clear that Netanyahu was using his speech to draw a comparison between himself and Ben-Gurion, and between Ben-Gurion’s decision to proclaim the foundation of the State of Israel and the decisions he, Netanyahu, is facing today to counter the Iranian nuclear threat.

Originally posted by hmdphantom
reply to post by Vitchilo

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Haaretz is just a tool for Zionists.

Members of a single American family have donated half of the NIS 330,000 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has raised for his Likud party primary campaign in the past few weeks.

Netanyahu's rival in the Likud primary, Moshe Feiglin, has raised some NIS 155,000. A survey of Feiglin's donors shows enormous differences between the two: While Netanyahu has a list of relatively few foreign donors who have been contributing large sums - Feiglin's donors are mostly Israelis from Jerusalem, Haifa and Beit Shemesh whose contributions were far smaller, a few hundred shekels at most.