‘A sad day’: Lapid attacks ‘puppet’ Netanyahu, vows to petition court on new law

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams the coalition for abusing its power, minutes after the Knesset passes the first of the coalition’s judicial overhaul laws.

Lapid promises to petition the High Court of Justice tomorrow against the freshly passed law.

“This is a complete breaking of the rules of the game,” Lapid says, from his Yesh Atid party’s Knesset conference room. “The government and coalition can choose what direction the state goes in, but it can’t decide the character of the state.”

The opposition leader encourages military reservists to wait before pulling out of military service. “Don’t stop serving,” Lapid says, “while we still don’t know the High Court of Justice’s ruling.”

Lapid also attacks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “weak,” saying “there is no prime minister.”

“Netanyahu has become a puppet on the strings of extremists and messianists,” he says.

To coalition members, who gathered for a congratulatory selfie as votes were being tallied, he asks “What are you celebrating?”

“This is a sad day, a day of our home’s destruction, of needless hatred, and look at the coalition celebrating,” he adds.