Lapid to Netanyahu: You failed on October 7, you’ve failed on the economy

Even as the prime minister boasts of leading Israel to “complete victory,” rocket alerts sirens are going off in the Gaza envelope, Opposition leader Yair Lapid declares following a speech by Netanyahu in the Knesset plenum.

Addressing lawmakers following Netanyahu during the so-called 40-signatures debate, Lapid says Netanyahu will be remembered as the “October 7 prime minister.”

“They will not remember anything from you except that: 1,800 dead and murdered, 14,000 injured,” he says, referring to the costs of the attack and the subsequent war. “You are indeed doing something that no government has done.”

Turning to the 2025 state budget, which passed its final reading on Tuesday evening, Lapid accuses Netanyahu of “squeezing the Israeli middle class in order to survive politically.”

“You failed to maintain security on October 7, and now you have failed to manage the economy, and you are again doing everything to shift responsibility onto others,” he continues.

“If you want proof that this is a terrible budget, ask yourself how come we didn’t see Netanyahu in all the budget discussions? He didn’t speak once. He didn’t release a single video. I remember budget discussions with you. Every time there was the smallest achievement, every time there was a tiny piece of news, we would find you in front of the camera,” Lapid says.

“But this time, silence. A budget is passed, [and] you’ve gone AWOL. Not a word. You’re distancing yourself in every possible way from this budget. Suddenly, you respect the finance minister, leaving the stage for him for an opening speech, leaving the stage for him for a closing speech, letting him bury himself before the nation.”

Unlike Argentine President Javier Milei and US Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk, “today you are the head of the fattest, most wasteful and most reckless government in the history of the country,” he says.