Facing criticism, Lapid says his party is only one that didn’t ‘abandon’ opposition

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has called out opposition heads Naftali Bennett, Gadi Eisenkot and Yair Golan, accusing them of abandoning the Knesset and leaving his party to fight against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition alone.

Speaking in a Zoom call with leaders of his Yesh Atid party last night, Lapid responded to internal criticism that the opposition he leads has been weak.

“Our answer is: Where is the opposition indeed? Why are we the only ones who didn’t flee?” Lapid said.

Naming them one by one, he said that Bennett, his former partner in their short-lived government, left before the previous elections and isn’t currently a member of the Knesset. Eisenkot, he noted, joined Netanyahu’s emergency wartime coalition at the start of the war in Gaza and then resigned from the Knesset over the Haredi draft evasion law “because he didn’t get along with Benny Gantz.” And Golan isn’t a member of the Knesset either.

“They are actually angry at those who stayed and fought instead of being angry at those who fled and disappeared,” he said.

“So with all due respect, we were there in all the struggles — on the regime coup, on finance matters, on the evasion law, in the committees, in the plenum. And if anyone has any complaints, they should direct them to those who abandoned the campaign,” Lapid added.