Lapid rips coalition over its COVID response: ‘People are dying, why can’t you work together?’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid unloads on the government for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and accuses Prime Minister Netanyahu of fueling division in Israeli society.

“People feel abandoned and exposed, so they look for someone to embrace them. They feel like there isn’t a government. There is no one they can trust. There is no one that cares. So if there is no state, at least there is a tribe,” Lapid says. “The problem doesn’t start at the bottom, it starts at the top, it starts with the government.”

Lapid comments on the near-constant coalition infighting and continued lack of state budget.

“People are sick, people are dying, why can’t you work together? Why can’t you pass a budget? Every fifth business in Israel has closed, why aren’t you doing anything? How dare you stay stuck in your poisonous arguments? How dare the prime minister continue to focus on his own criminal trial?” he says.

He declares that the coalition isn’t capable of tackling the pandemic and therefore calls for a new government.