Lapid warns that incitement against Ronen Bar could lead to ‘political murder’

Warning that a red line has been crossed, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt incitement against Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar before it leads to “political murder.”

Addressing reporters during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Lapid cites multiple social media posts by Israelis calling for Bar’s execution — as well as posts by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Netanyahu’s son Yair accusing Bar of attempting to mount a “coup.”

Lapid also quotes a statement by Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party accusing Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of turning the security service into a “private militia of the deep state that undermines the rule of law and the foundations of democracy.”

“Ministers and senior figures in the coalition” have engaged in similar rhetoric regarding Baharav-Miara and both she and Bar have been subjected to increasing threats on social media, Lapid continues, warning that Israel is headed to “a dark and dangerous place” and that while Hamas was behind the October 7, 2023, onslaught, “the next disaster will be brought about by this crazy incitement.”

Incitement against Netanyahu must also end, even “if this is a false symmetry,” Lapid adds, saying the prime minister is responsible for reining in his allies and followers’ rhetoric.

“I now want to issue a warning based on unequivocal intelligence information: We are on the way to another disaster. This time it will come from within. The levels of incitement and madness are unprecedented. There will be political murder here. Jews will kill Jews,” Lapid says, arguing that “the terrorists… could not have received a greater gift” than a rupture between the Shin Bet and the government.

“I call out to the prime minister: Stop this. It’s on you. You can stop this. Silence your ministers, your son in Miami, the mouthpieces you employ in the media. Instead of backing incitement, back the Shin Bet, the security forces, the systems that keep this country alive,” Lapid urges.

“If you don’t do it now, decisively, you won’t be able to say later, ‘I didn’t know,'” Lapid adds. “This time it won’t work for you. You do know. You’re part of it. You need to stop it.”