In on-air gaffe, PM calls Lapid ‘natural’ coalition ally

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday erroneously called his former finance minister a “natural partner” in forming a government, months after his dismissal of Yair Lapid triggered the collapse of the coalition and new elections. The remark was later corrected by the Likud party.

Speaking in an interview with Radio Darom, the prime minister said he’d form a “broad national government” if tapped to build a ruling coalition after Tuesday’s election. He included Yesh Atid party leader Lapid as a “natural partner” in constructing a new government.

“I will form a broad national government with Likud and its natural partners, but I of course expect our natural partners — [Moshe] Kahlon (Kulanu) and Lapid (Yesh Atid) — to endorse us,” Netanyahu said.

Lapid, who served as finance minister until he was sacked by Netanyahu in December, has since become a fierce critic of the prime minister.

Shortly after Netanyahu’s on-air slip-up, Lapid took to Twitter to tease the prime minister for the blunder: “I heard that Netanyahu mistook me for Liberman on Radio Darom. Mr. Netanyahu, Liberman is the one with the beard.”

Several hours after the interview, Likud released a statement asserting that Netanyahu had erred, accidentally referring to Lapid instead of Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman. Liberman’s party ran on a joint ballot with Likud in 2013, but split up the alliance in July last year.

“While speaking, the prime minister inadvertently used the name Lapid instead of Liberman,” the statement read. “The steadfast position of the prime minister, which has been expressed dozens of times in [recent months], is clear: Yesh Atid is clearly a left-wing party which will recommend Tzipi [Livni] and [Isaac Herzog] to lead the government and will only sit in a left-wing government.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu said he will build a national government from our partners from the right; Likud will not sit in a unity government with Labor and Lapid.”

Netanyahu fired Lapid from his cabinet post in December following a series of internal squabbles over a number of key pieces of legislation. The move, which signaled the dissolution of the government and brought about the upcoming elections, caused a furor in the Knesset and led the Yesh Atid chairman on a three-month offensive against the prime minister.

While Lapid did not reveal who he would endorse for prime minister in an interview with the Times of Israel earlier this week, much of his campaign has centered around Netanyahu’s supposed failures, alleging the prime minister is “out of touch” with Israeli society and must be replaced.

During the radio interview, Netanyahu also expressed confidence in a Likud victory on Tuesday, despite the fact that his party is trailing in the polls. “I want people to vote for my party, the Likud, and the gap [in the polls] will close,” Netanyahu declared.

Netanyahu’s center-right party is trailing the Zionist Union tandem headed by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni by as many as four seats in some polls, although many analysts are unsure of how the center-left party could form a coalition government following the election if the current poll results prove accurate.