Zahava Gal-On responds to speculation that PM timing elections to facilitate military strike

The idea that Israel could attack Iran while the US president is engaged in election campaigning and the Knesset is in recess is illegitimate and “childish,” said the left-wing Meretz party chairwoman Zahava Gal-On Saturday.

“The idea of taking advantage of the fact that the parents are away from home is childish because the parents will return and the punishment will be severe,” said Gal-On during a public address in Jerusalem.

“An interim government lacks the moral authority and public legitimacy to take such action,” said Gal-On in reference to recent speculation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were planning an October preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Earlier Saturday, Labor party leader Shelly Yachimovich said that the government was “making a terrible mistake by turning the Iranian threat into the central problem of Israel.”

In an interview with Channel 2′s Meet the Press, she said that Iran should be presented as the whole world’s problem, not just an Israeli one.

Yachimovich stressed the importance of Israel being in complete coordination with the United States on the Iranian issue. (© 2012 THE TIMES OF ISRAEL 05/05/12)