(IsraelNN.com) The chairwoman of ruling party Kadima, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, has repeated her challenge to Likud leader Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu to participate in a televised debate with her and Labor leader Ehud Barak. Barak, too, called for a three-way debate. Netanyahu, who is favored by the polls to win the election, has thus far not cooperated with the initiative for holding such a debate.  

"I expect Bibi, who talks about himself in terms of a strong person, to come to a debate. A person who is afraid to come to a debate is not strong enough to lead this country with regard to the things that we need to deal with,” Livni announced.

Barak also called for a three-way debate Thursday. “I have repeatedly called out to Binyamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni, and I am doing so again now, to show up for a direct face-off in full view of the nation,” Barak said in
"A person who is afraid to come to a debate is not strong enough to lead this country."
a speech marking the renewed launching of Labor's election campaign following the Gaza battles. “The voters deserve it,” Barak said. “Netanyahu doesn't want it and Tzipi Livni, as is her habit, is content with just talking about it. And I say here today... I am calling out to both of them... this is the moment of truth, come and step up for a debate.”

Opinions pro and con
In an opinion piece on News1, commentator Avraham Ben-Ezra applauded Netanyahu for avoiding a debate. “Binyamin Netanyahu has done well to deny the radical leftist party known as 'the media' (which controls Israeli television) this pleasure, and although he is worthy, he should avoid embarrassing appearances in the media as long as he is not guaranteed respectful treatment, at least like that which is given to the heads of the radical Israeli left – like Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Ahmed Tibi, Tzipora Livni and others.”

Knesset Channel reporter Liran Danash took an opposite tack in a piece in Maariv/NRG, writing: “You of all people, Mr. Netanyahu, have an advantage in communicative and verbal abilities over Livni, who is getting (possibly too much) help from her advisors in recent weeks and may even be talking too much, and over Barak, who is so unlikeable. It is strange, then, that you keep on rejecting the idea of a televised debate which Livni and Barak have already said they would be happy to attend. A debate that will give the Israeli public a deserved chance to analyze in depth the candidates answers [when they are] face to face, instead of relying on slogans, websites or billboards which extol their virtues.”