Lapid blasts PM for using Israel’s security to solve his political problems

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid slams Benjamin Netanyahu for “using security to solve political problems,” after the prime minister named himself yesterday as defense minister and said it was wrong to bring down the government during “this sensitive security period.”

Speaking at his Yesh Atid faction meeting in the Knesset after Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett announced he would not be forcing early elections, Lapid said, “The behavior of Netanyahu and his ministers is a shameful circus of politicians who only care about their chairs, their portfolios.”

Netanyahu has used the coalition crisis to distract from the fact that “four days ago he surrendered to Yahya Sinwar,” Lapid says, referring to the ceasefire deal with the Hamas leader.

Meanwhile, he continued, “residents of the south are still licking their wounds, still wondering why the government has abandoned them, looking up and seeing, again, incendiary balloons.”

— Raoul Wootliff