Netanyahu's ‘weapons’: cameras in polling booths and Iranian threat

Parliament and the judiciary reject the Prime Minister's proposal to install cameras in the polling stations in Arab towns, due to the (presumed) danger of fraud. The outgoing leader, in search of the fifth mandate, brandishes the threat of the ayatollah’s atomic capabilities. And reveals, without proving it, a destroyed site for the development of nuclear weapons.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the Israeli parliament for the go ahead to install cameras in polling stations ahead of the political elections of 17 September for the (presumed) risk of rigging.

Ahead of the vote, the outgoing premier [with the support of the Likud] is attempting to use propaganda weapons to secure the support of the electorate, focusing the last phase of the campaign on the "Iranian danger" and the danger of possible fraud.

Addressing the electorate, Netanyahu appealed for them to turn out en masse at the polls to secure the necessary votes to get a fifth mandate to lead the country. Meanwhile, leading figures of the ruling party speak [without any evidence] of rigging that took place in the seats of the majority Arab towns in the last election round of April.

In recent days, the interim government, on Netanyahu's proposal, has approved a draft law that provides for the installation of cameras to monitor voting operations. However, the draft bill was rejected yesterday following the Knesset's vote against.

The general prosecutor who rejected the government's proposal citing confidentiality and procedural flaws also intervened on the matter. Several members of the national political scene, including Netanyahu's former ally and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and leader of rival Benny Gantz (the centrist Blue and White party) Also opposed are.

At the same time, the outgoing prime minister agitates the specter of Iranian danger and the nuclear threat, to close ranks and gain greater support from the electorate. He has returned to accuse Iran of wanting to develop the atomic bomb, talking about a nuclear site located in the central city of Abadeh, then dismantled after being discovered.

The revelation would be contained within a mass of documents stolen by Israeli secret services in an Iranian warehouse and made public last year. "On this site - says Netanyahu - Iran has conducted experiments to develop nuclear weapons ... When Iran understood that the place had been discovered, that's what they did: they destroyed it, they blew it up."

He did not, however, provide any evidence to support his thesis and the (alleged) nuclear tests that took place inside, but only showed two different satellite images at a distance of time between them. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif immediately replied, posting a 2002 video in which the Israeli Prime Minister talks about the "positive aspects" of a fall of the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "The owners of real nuclear weapons - said the head of Tehran’s diplomacy  - cry wolf about an alleged site demolished in Iran".