Lapid: Netanyahu did not warn voters ‘that Israel will cease being a democracy’

Opposition leader Yair Lapid accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of hiding how extreme his coalition’s plans were for vastly reshaping the judicial system.

“They didn’t present the reform to voters,” asserts Lapid at a Yesh Atid faction meeting. “They didn’t say how extreme it would be. They stammered every time they were asked about it during the election. They didn’t tell voters that Israel will cease being a democracy. They didn’t tell voters that they would irreversibly destroy the Supreme Court.”

During the election campaign, Religious Zionism’s Bezalel Smotrich and Simcha Rothman presented a plan to radically remake the judicial system, but it was not as publicly embraced by Likud before the vote.

Rather, Lapid claims, “they are doing what they do best: lies and trying to confuse everyone” in an effort to keep Netanyahu out of prison and allow convicted criminal Shas leader Aryeh Deri to become a minister.

Lapid says that Saturday night’s mass protest in Tel Aviv “is just the beginning — they won’t stop us… with threats of arrest.”

Answering criticism about his decision not to attend, Lapid says that he had spoken to organizers who were concerned that his presence would make the event “too political.”