Lapid accuses PM of threatening police with budget cuts to get fraud case dropped

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid is accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of threatening to cut the Israel Police budget in a bid to have the cops drop the corruption probes against him.

At the weekly faction meeting, Lapid refers to a bill by Likud MK David Amsalem that would see the police budget handled by the Public Security Ministry.

“The timing is not coincidental,” he says, pointing to a series of arrests of Netanyahu confidants on Monday in the so-called submarines affair. “This isn’t a technical decision. This is a threatening letter.”

“There is no chance in the world, no way, that this process [Amsalem’s bill] goes ahead and the prime minister is not behind it. It’s personal,” says Lapid.

He says the government is intimidating the police, “scaring the gatekeepers, scaring the investigators, scaring the entire system.”

At the meeting, Lapid reiterates that Netanyahu ought to cancel his meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban over his praise for a Nazi-allied leader. But he says he “won’t defend” George Soros, amid an ad campaign in Hungary seen as anti-Semitic against the Jewish billionaire who is critical of Israel.

He also refers to the Labor party primaries, emphasizing that the next election over who will be prime minister will be between Likud and Yesh Atid.

— Marissa Newman