Left accuses Netanyahu of making political capital from Issachar’s return

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau was wrong to use the return of Rehovot resident Naama Issachar from a Russian prison as an election ploy, politicians on the left said on Thursday. The politicians said Issachar should have been allowed to come home on her own and not on Netanyahu’s plane following a hastily organized meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin. “I have nothing against Naama Issachar, who became a hostage to the power plays of Putin,” former Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On said. “But this is not the first time that Netanyahu uses the state’s resources to get re-elected, and I would like to know which specific resources were promised to the Russians in return for this little photo-op. If anyone thinks that Naama was freed merely as a gesture to Netanyahu, I have a used prime minister to sell you. Labor MK Omer Bar-Lev told Radio Darom that Israel surrendered to Russia. “I assume that were it not right before elections, it would not have happened this way,” Bar-Lev said. “It is delusional that a girl who took nine grams of drugs with her on an international flight is coming home on the prime minister’s plane. When Netanyahu’s back is against the wall, we pay a high price.” Labor faction chairman Itzik Shmuli said Netanyahu deserved praise for his efforts to bring about Issachar’s release as well as criticism for his “cynical political move that he made on Naama’s back.” Blue and White MK Alon Shuster, who heads the Knesset caucus on missing soldiers called it shameful that Netanyahu made such an effort for Issachar and not for the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul. “If they only would have flown to Russia with a few grams of hashish and not fallen fighting for their homeland in an operation they sent them to fight in, perhaps he would have worked with similar determination for them,” Shuster said.  Sources who spoke this week with Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard and his wife Esther said that despite reports, they were unaware of any effort being made to enable him to move to Israel ahead of the March 2 election.
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