Bennett: Netanyahu’s Likud leading Israel ‘negligently from failure to disaster’

Yamina head Naftali Bennett attacks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud as a “party that’s failing to run the country, whose negligence leads it from failure to disaster.”

Bennett, who is reportedly set to serve as prime minister first in the putative coalition with Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid, writes on Facebook that the government should not end operations in Gaza until Hamas has “paid a heavy price.”

Bennett also calls for protection for residents of cities that have seen intense rioting in recent days.

“The legal and political system must back up those who defend themselves and their families with weapons,” says Bennett, echoing Interior Minister Amir Ohana’s call for the release of a Jewish man held for killing an Arab Israeli man in Lod.

The man was shot and killed and two others were wounded during violence on Monday evening. Some reports said the victims were part of a mob throwing stones and firebombs at Jewish-owned homes and were shot by Jewish residents in what Jewish witnesses said was self-defense.

“The fact that they are currently in custody is a moral injustice, and a serious message to anyone who wants to defend themselves in the future,” writes Bennett.