From the Liveblog of
Monday, July 15, 2024
Lapid calls PM a ‘crybaby and a coward’ after he held 2-hour meeting on incitement against him
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"
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a “crybaby and a coward” after the premier held a two-hour debate yesterday in the cabinet about incitement against him.
Reading a threatening letter wishing death and illness upon him and his family, Lapid asks journalists ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset if he had ever brought up the issue before.
“Have you heard about it? Did I hold a press conference? Did I hold a two-hour special faction discussion? Yes, there are threats and there is incitement. It’s a terrible and sad part of the world we live in. Everyone who reaches a senior position goes through it,” he declares.
And while violence and threats against the prime minister are unacceptable, damaging to democracy, and must be prosecuted, “Netanyahu is not a victim, he is a crybaby and a coward,” Lapid insists.
“Every soldier in Gaza is more threatened than he is, every IDF fighter in Jenin is in more danger than he is. The man who set up the poison machine, who brought in foreign billionaires and set up an incitement machine that is slowly taking over all the media in Israel, complains that they are inciting against him.”
Following this weekend’s assassination attempt against former US president Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs screened a compilation of video clips showing critics of the government engaging in “incitement against the prime minister” during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
The screening was followed by a two-hour debate on the issue, during which ministers pointed fingers at the justice system, law enforcement, and the attorney general for what they said was unchecked violent speech by members of the public against Netanyahu and his family.
“There is no two-hour discussion about the 101 victims of Kibbutz Be’eri, there is no two-hour discussion about the soldier who was seriously injured in the north by a drone. What about the threat to her life? Is her life less important? Why is there no two-hour discussion about the five female observation soldiers held hostage in Gaza,” Lapid asks. “Only incitement against [Netanyahu] is worth two hours of discussion? Is that the only thing that matters?”
“I don’t remember him saying anything when Naftali Bennett’s child received an envelope with a bullet and threats against his life,” he adds, referring to a threat against the then-prime minister in 2022.
