Haaretz, Aug. 4, 2015

the most hypocritical of disguises are not those of Netanyahu and the xenophobes and reactionaries in his government (whose promise of a two-state solution everyone except American and European diplomats knew was a lie all along), but the disguises of Isaac Herzog, the leader of Israel’s so-called opposition and head of Zionist Union (formerly the center-left Labor Party).

[...] Herzog’s [...] real stance [...] is indistinguishable from that of Netanyahu’s. While he insists he favors a freeze on settlement construction, he wants to renew contentless peace talks with the Palestinians, as does Netanyahu. [...]

Also like Netanyahu, Herzog’s overriding ambition is not a peace accord or ending the occupation, but sitting some day in the prime minister’s chair. [...]

That, too, is why Herzog fully supports Netanyahu’s opposition to the international nuclear agreement with Iran, and why he supported not only Israel’s assault on Gaza last year but criticized Netanyahu for not having continued the slaughter and finished off Hamas. It is also why he and his party were nowhere to be seen when the Knesset recently set about passing legislation intended to shut down Israeli NGOs seeking to protect the rights of minorities in Israel and of Palestinians in the occupied territories.