Lapid slams Netanyahu for issuing demands ahead of talks: ‘What is it good for?’

By Sam Sokol 7 July 2024, 8:40 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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 at his Yesh Atid party's weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, July 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his office releases a list of four non-negotiable demands ahead of renewed hostage-truce talks this week.

“I have one response to the announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office: What is it good for? We are at a critical moment in the negotiations, the lives of the hostages depend on it; why issue such provocative messages?” Lapid asks in a statement. “How does it contribute to the process?”

The PMO’s statement asserted that Netanyahu’s refusal to stop the IDF ground operation in Rafah “is what brought Hamas back to the negotiating table,” and that the prime minister “continues to stand firmly behind the principles that have already been agreed to by Israel.”