Israeli president faults Netanyahu statement on Arab citizens
Analysts said the statement helped turn out the vote for Netanyahu's nationalist Likud party and played a major role in its victory in Tuesday's parliamentary elections, reports dpa.
But Rivlin, who opened consultations with the 10 factions elected to the Knesset, called the statement "hurtful."
He also criticized a member of the United List of mostly Arab parties who had said that the Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq had learned its cruelty from the Zionists. Rivlin called that comparison "unacceptable."
"We went through a turbulent and passionate election campaign," Rivlin said, according to a statement from his office. "We heard difficult and hurtful statements both from the Jewish side and the Arab side."
"I call on everyone, Jews and Arabs alike, to refrain from incitement," he said.
"This is the time to start a process of healing for Israeli society," Rivlin said.
The president, whose duties are otherwise largely ceremonial, must consult the factions elected to parliament before appointing a party leader to form a coalition.
Netanyahu, whose Likud party won 30 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, is expected to be asked to form a government. He wants to build a coalition of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties and a centrist party.
The Zionist Camp, a centre-left faction led by Labour Party leader Isaac Herzog, won 24 seats, coming in second.
Longtime Arab-Israeli lawmaker Ahmed Tibi had called on Netanyahu to apologize for the remark on Arab voters, which also sparked US and international ire, but the incumbent so far has not done so.
Asked if the Likud was willing to send a reassuring message to Israel's Arab minority, who represent 20 per cent of Israel's 8 million people, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said, "We express deep sorrow over the wrong interpretation of the prime minister's remark on election day."
Netanyahu himself, in a series of interviews with US broadcasters seeking to mitigate damage done by his hardline campaign remarks, said the equal rights of Israel's Arab minority, including the right to vote, were "sacrosanct."
But Netanyahu repeated his allegation, dismissed as a "lie" by the opposition, that anti-Israel non-governmental groups based abroad had been sending millions of dollars to Israel to get Arabs and left-wing Israelis to vote against him.
"I wasn't trying to suppress a vote. I was trying to counter a foreign-funded effort to get votes that are intended to topple my party, and I was calling on our voters to come out."
United States President Barack Obama said Netanyahu's "rhetoric was contrary to what is the best of Israel's traditions."
"Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly," Obama said in an interview with the Huffington Post website published Saturday. "... If that is lost, then I think that not only does it give ammunition to folks who don't believe in a Jewish state, but it also I think starts to erode the meaning of democracy in the country."
Netanyahu also tried in the interviews before the weekend to backtrack on a pre-election remark that no Palestinian state would be founded under his watch.
Asked the night before voters went to the polls if he could state as clearly as his main ultra-nationalist rival had done that no Palestinian state would be established under his watch, Netanyahu replied, "Indeed."
Netanyahu's statement ran contrary to US policy of the past 20 years in favour of a two-state solution, and Obama, who has had testy relations with Netanyahu, told the Huffington Post that he believed the prime minister the first time around about Palestinian statehood.
"We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn't happen during his prime ministership, and so that's why we've got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don't see a chaotic situation in the region," Obama said.
"I haven't changed my policy. ... What has changed is the reality," Netanyahu argued to the MSNBC news channel, citing the threats that have risen in the Middle East.
"I don't want a one-state solution," he insisted. "I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution, but for that, circumstances have to change."
Tzipi Livni, of the Zionist Camp, countered: "Now, after that last zig-zag by Netanyahu, there is no one left in the world who believes the prime minister of Israel - and that is sad and worrying considering the challenge we face."
Rivlin is expected to finish his meetings with faction representatives Monday.
Once formally appointed to the task, Netanyahu has 28 days to form a coalition.
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