Lapid blasts Netanyahu, Ben Gvir for blaming terror attack on courts ‘instead of taking responsibility’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir appear to blame the judicial system for this morning’s deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem.

“The opposition refrained from blaming the government for the terrible attack. We decided not to act as they did when we were leading the country in far safer days. Perhaps it is a political mistake, but in the face of the victims and the pain, we will not be like them,” tweets Lapid.

“But Netanyahu and Ben Gvir will never change. While the victims lie before us, the government is already blaming the judicial system…instead of taking responsibility. All that is left for us is to repeat what Netanyahu and Ben Gvir said time and again during the days of the ‘government of change’: You are responsible, this is on your account. You promised security to the citizens of Israel, and you have failed.”

Addressing reporters at the scene of the attack, Ben Gvir inveighed against the High Court of Justice and implied it bore responsibility for the attack.

“Just yesterday, the High Court of Justice handed down a shocking, terrible decision that eases the conditions for the Nukhba terrorists,” he said, referring to yesterday’s court decision that determined Israel is not properly feeding Palestinian security prisoners.

“It is simply incomprehensible how the court hands down rulings like this,” he said. “They want to ease their [Palestinian prisoners’] conditions, and terror raises its head.”

Netanyahu made a similar statement in his remarks to reporters at the scene of the shooting, calling on the judicial system “to join the fight against terror,” according to Channel 12 news.