At anti-government protest, Lapid says all Netanyahu cares about is staying in office

All that matters to Benjamin Netanyahu is to stay in office, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tells demonstrators outside the Knesset, accusing the prime minister of focusing more on keeping his coalition partners happy than helping citizens impacted by the war.

“The lights have been on in his office for a week” as Netanyahu works “to make sure that the ultra-Orthodox can continue to evade conscription despite the war. The IDF is begging for more soldiers. They don’t care,” he says.

“If a hundredth, a thousandth, a fraction of this organizational efficiency had been devoted to the hostages, or the evacuees, or the management of the war, or the economy, our situation would be completely different [but] there is only one thing that is important to Netanyahu — to stay in office,” he continues.

“Let the state burn, the main thing is the office,” Lapid declares. “That’s all that matters to him, to remain in office. He destroys the relations with the Americans, destroys the security system, abandons the hostages and helps the evaders to continue to evade. Everything is for politics, nothing for the country.”

“This week they are taking the Knesset into recess in the middle of the war,” he adds. “The reservists don’t get a break. The hostages don’t get a break. It doesn’t interest them. Everyone who sits in this government today, the responsibility is on them. Every minister who doesn’t resign, every Knesset member who doesn’t vote against the government, who doesn’t help us send them home, it’s on them. This stain will stick to them for the rest of their life.”

“We can’t live like this. We can’t go on like this. We don’t have to either. We can live differently. We can continue otherwise. As long as we are a democracy, there is a tool that changes reality. It is called: elections. Election now,” he declares.

“Elections now! Elections now,” the crowd screams in response.