The 2017-2018 Knesset winter session opened on Monday, October 22, with a storm of vilifying speeches, including that of PM Benjamin Netanyahu who launched an attack on his critics in the opposition and the media, calling them “sour pickles.”

Netanyahu and sour pickles (Photo: PMO)

“The industry of despondency still exists and has representatives in this building and in the media. Recently, the industry of despondency has sprouted a new branch, the sour pickles. They say that today there is a sour feeling among the public; that Netanyahu is walking around with a sour face. But they’re letting an historic opportunity turn sour,” the prime minister said.

“The sour pickles do something else. They always describe the situation in the country as idling in neutral, as frozen. … When the sour pickles talk among themselves, you can hear conversations like, ‘Isn’t the situation here terrible?’ ‘Isn’t everything collapsing?'”

Hadash MK Dov Khenin (Joint List) said in response to the prime minister’s remarks that “Netanyahu’s criticism of the ‘sour pickle’ opposition is an attempt to cover up the growing culture of decay of the far-right and neo-liberal government.” MK Khenin asked rhetorically: “[And] what about the [police] probes into bribery?”