Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Monday, July 17, 2023

Lapid: The US is no longer Israel’s closest ally

By Carrie Keller-Lynn 17 July 2023, 3:26 pm 14 Edit

Carrie Keller-Lynn is a political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel

Head of the Yesh Atid party MK Yair Lapid speaks during a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on July 17, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Opposition leader Yair Lapid warns that the government is leading the country into disaster with its policies and endangering its security, speaking at a faction meeting of his Yesh Atid party.

“The Israeli government is leading us into this crisis, making the biggest and most dramatic changes to the regime in our history, without holding a single discussion — not even one — about the economic, security, social and political consequences of the move,” Lapid says, referring to the coalition’s reasonableness bill. The bill aims to curtail judicial oversight over the reasonableness of the cabinet’s or ministers’ decisions.

He notes the tensions in ties with the US, saying that “the United States is no longer our closest ally.”