Lapid calls on Netanyahu to agree to hostage deal, reiterates pledge of safety net for government
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Calling on Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the latest hostage deal under discussion, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid reiterates his promise to provide the prime minister with a political safety net if his far-right coalition partners pull out of the government over its adoption.
“The Israeli government should… send a delegation to Cairo today to finalize the final details and bring home the men, young women, elderly and soldiers imprisoned in the tunnels,” Lapid tells lawmakers during a hearing of the State Control Committee in the Knesset.
The proposal, which was unveiled late last week by US President Joe Biden, is said to have been put forward by Israel without the prior knowledge of the wider security cabinet.
Addressing lawmakers during a hearing of the State Control Committee in the Knesset, Lapid says that finishing off Hamas can wait but the hostages are out of time.
“I offered and I am repeating my offer to give Netanyahu a political safety net to carry out the deal,” he says. “Our hostages should be returned. Ben Gvir and Smotrich cannot prevent them from returning home. They are dying there… There will be time to eliminate [Hamas leaders Yahya] Sinwar and [Mohammed] Deif, there will be time to eliminate Hamas; there is no time left for the hostages.”
Netanyahu’s ultranationalist coalition partners, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of Religious Zionism and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of Otzma Yehudit, threatened Saturday night to bring down the government if the proposed hostage release and ceasefire deal is adopted.
Slamming the government for managing “to lose the sympathy of the world” while “waging the most just war in history,” Lapid says that “the world doesn’t understand what the goal of the war is, because we don’t understand what the goal of the war is either.”
Lapid calls on Bibi to accept the hostage deal that Biden unveiled last week, stating that ultranationalist ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich cannot be allowed to stand in the way of an agreement pic.twitter.com/TMd0dfgfqu
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) June 3, 2024
