Lapid slams Netanyahu as ‘puppet PM of ultra-Orthodox’

Opposition MK Yair Lapid joins the chorus of condemnation directed at Netanyahu’s government after his cabinet shelved an agreement to establish a pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Western Wall.

“The reasons for the prime minister canceling [the plan] yesterday was political survival,” Lapid says at the opening of a Yesh Atid faction meeting. “He is no longer the prime minister of the entire Jewish people, but rather the puppet prime minister of ultra-Orthodox operators.”

Lapid also chastises Netanyahu’s ministers for giving the initial approval of a bill that would cement ultra-Orthodox monopoly on conversion in Israel.

“Yesterday, tens of thousands of immigrants were just slapped in the face by the Israeli government,” he says. “Religious Zionism also received a message yesterday: you lost! Your rabbis and your faith is inferior, you are not kosher enough.”