Lapid accuses Netanyahu of failing against terror

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his response to a series of terror attacks in the West Bank, accusing him of pretending to care for Israel’s security while failing to create a deterrent to prevent future attacks.

Head of the Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on December 17, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

“I want to say something from here to the government of Israel,” he says at the opening of his party’s Knesset faction meeting. “I am in favor of demolishing the houses of terrorists. Where have you been until now? I am in favor of expelling the families of terrorists who are involved in terror. Where have you been until now?”

As part of a series of measures targeting perpetrators of Palestinian attacks, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted yesterday to advance a bill that would allow Israel to forcibly relocate the families of Palestinian terrorists from their homes to other areas of the West Bank. The government has also stepped up efforts to demolish the homes of families of attackers.

But Lapid says the steps are media spin while the prime minister ignores the real challenges for Israelis facing terror, accusing Netanyahu of spending too much time up north where the IDF is uncovering Hezbollah tunnels and making fun of his puffy black jacket.

Ministers in the security cabinet, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, receive briefings from IDF officers while touring the Golan Heights, February 6, 2018. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

“No resident of the West Bank can remember what he looks like. No resident of the Gaza vicinity remembers what he looks like, where he does not do press conferences because he comes only when it looks like success. No one comes to the failures​,”​ Lapid charges.

— Raoul Wootliff