''The Likudniks are grassroots, are you coming at them from the top of a bus with glass?''

September 11, 2022   

Matan Khudorov: Behind armored glass costing 700,000 shekels, opposition leader Netanyahu is launching the 'Bibi Boss', in which he intends to tour all over the country ("No armored glass will separate my heart from yours, we are together, I'm coming to your neighborhood, let's get going"). Free emergency hotline: Evacuation of the deceased and everything you need to know about burial MK Shlomo Kerei: "Netanyahu is reaching the public, to places we haven't been to before, a change in methodology - conferences where people have to go through exhausting and difficult security checks upon entry, because of the Shin Bet security requirements. The only person who now passes these security requirements is Netanyahu himself.". Matan: In previous campaigns, we saw Netanyahu touching his audience, rubbing shoulders, despite the security considerations you mentioned. And this time he's the one who's separated by a kind of aquarium, a glass partition, and he seems a bit disconnected. Keri: What you saw that rubbed off on the crowd was after two or three hours of people standing in line and waiting for exhausting and difficult security checks. Believe me, people here arrived 5 minutes ago, they didn't have to stand in line for long hours, everyone is enjoying seeing Netanyahu. The glass doesn't separate their love, ours for them, and theirs for us. Matan: Yes, but maybe you understand for yourself that Netanyahu is in trouble, because time after time he failed in the four previous attempts to reach a high voter turnout in cities that are considered 'Likud', and that's why he even needs this gimmick with mileage that can quickly move from place to place. Keri: Matan, in the previous times, Netanyahu didn't have an amazing, reality-based campaign that lasted an entire year that showed what happens if you don't go to vote, or what happens if you vote for parties that don't have deep roots in Judaism and our national and Zionist values. In the past year, we saw what a war there can be with the Muslim Brotherhood, and this time also the 'joint' party in line to enter Lapid's government. And no one can take this campaign away from us. The public that didn't go out to vote because they said, 'Everything will be fine, Bibi will continue to be prime minister, the world as usual,' this time you see the area, you see everywhere, people are coming out, look at the windows of the houses around. Matan: I mainly see the armored glass and I realized that it alone cost about 700,000 shekels. Can you tell me if this money came from the party budget? Keri: Believe me, 700,000 shekels is a small amount of money compared to the security costs of every conference and every event we would hold. So we saved the public and the public money a lot of money. And as I said, Matan, a lot of water cannot extinguish the love, and even armored glass cannot separate the love that the public, the people of Israel, have for Netanyahu, and you will see it with God's help in two months. Matan: Oh, MK Kerei, just for this poetry it was worth inviting you on the broadcast. Many waters cannot extinguish love, and rivers cannot wash it away. What do you say about the bus? Shari Roth: Wow, at first glance I said 'that's arrogant', at second glance I said 'I love Bibi among the people, a slob', I think the Likudniks also like him more when he rubs up against them. Maybe the Shin Bet doesn't like it, I don't know, but look, the Likudniks are popular, you come at them from the top of the bus, with the glass, they don't really like it. But I can also understand Netanyahu if he's afraid. Matan: Will we also see Goldknoff and Gafni on buses, soon, now that Ben Gvir is threatening to eat them? Sherry: First of all, ask if we'll see them together, which is actually the question Netanyahu fears the most, and it scares him more than anything, but there's no bulletproof glass to save that... Micha Friedman: To me, it's ridiculous, all that glass. I remember an election campaign when I was younger, where he stood in the hall and posed. He didn't have to do it then, and it's an exaggeration even today. Sherry: But it's possible that the Shin Bet told him to do it that way. Micha, if the Shin Bet gave him an order - then he did.