Elkin pans Lapid’s ‘contempt’ for southern residents

MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) lambastes Finance Minister Yair Lapid for failing to appear in front of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which this morning discusses compensation arrangements for business owners and salaried employees impacted by Operation Protective Edge.

“Lapid’s empty chair resonates and symbolizes the contempt he has for residents of the south,” says Elkin, who heads the influential Knesset committee.

Even if the residents of Israel’s southern periphery are not the main clientele of Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party, it is expected of a finance minister to take responsibility for all citizens, Elkin fumes.

“I would prefer that instead of hanging out in front of the television cameras in the south, the finance minister would find the time, during a fight that has been ongoing for more than a week, to find a way to respond to the plight of hundreds of thousands of Israelis.”

—Raphael Ahren