Netanyahu gaffe on Gaza withdrawal causes uproar

The Zionist Union criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday for an interview he did with The Jerusalem Post last week in which he confused the historical reality of the Gaza Strip. 

In the interview, Netanyahu said that voters who had cast their vote for Likud in 2006 could have prevented the withdrawal from Gaza. Nationalist camp voters "paved the way for the left" in 2006, the prime minister told JPost's Gil Hoffman, when "we [Likud] didn't get the support and, of course, Kadima formed the government and went [through with] the withdrawal from Gaza with such horrible consequences for Israel's security." 

However, the withdrawal, which actually happened in the summer of 2005, was initiated by a Likud-led government in which Netanyahu was finance minister. Moreover, Netanyahu voted for the withdrawal three times, before he eventually resigned to protest it. 

Ariel Sharon's Kadima party was not formed until November of 2005, ahead of the 2006 elections. 

The Zionist Union wrote on their official Facebook page that "the worse Bibi does in the polls, the more he lies." 

Netanyahu's mistake was one of many made in recent days as tired politicians reached the end of the election campaign. On the other side of the political landscape, Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said in an interview with Channel 2 Saturday night that he would keep "Netanyahu United," intending to say Jerusalem when asked on the future of the Israeli capital if negotiations with the Palestinians were to resume.

Another public slip-up occurred when Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked mistakenly called upon people to cast ballots for Likud in an interview with the Ba-Rama radio station.