Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) during a Knesset debate on Monday over the latter’s call for a “war” to unseat the government.
“I want to hear it from you: Are you declaring war? Who are you declaring war on? On your brothers?” Netanyahu asked Lapid during Monday’s so-called 40-signature debate, which the opposition can call once a month and in which the premier is legally obliged to participate.
“I heard your speech on Saturday night. I know what pressure is. I don’t want to say that the opposition leader is not under pressure, but there is no need to stress. You need to keep calm and hold it together; there is no need to foam at the mouth,” said the premier.
"גזלייט" - נתניהו התייחס לנאום לפיד במוצ"ש והציע 'לא להיסחף', במליאה הגיבו לרה"מ@netanyahu @yairlapid pic.twitter.com/hSDEjLuZgb
— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) December 23, 2024
Netanyahu’s Knesset remarks referenced Lapid’s speech at Saturday night’s anti-government protest at Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Junction.
“Already for two years now, the government of destruction has been a government of an illegitimate minority. The vast majority of Israelis no longer want them,” Lapid claimed to the cheers of activists. “We are the majority. There will be no compromise; we will not bend or surrender. We are here to overthrow the government and go to elections.”
“You want a war? You’ll get a war!” the opposition leader added.
Lapid told the Knesset on Monday, “The prime minister decided to open his speech with a quote from my speech. It’s great that, with an 18-hour schedule, he has time to hear me speak. If you’re going to quote me, quote me accurately. What I said is that if you want war, you’ll get war.”
He continued, “The point is that if you want to declare war on the legal system, on the free media, on the top brass of the Israel Defense Forces—you will get it.”
Responding to Netanyahu’s remarks about pressure, Lapid stated, “I want to remind you: we met on Oct. 7 [2023]. I saw you. Out of respect for the prime minister, I won’t say what you looked like on Oct. 7.”
The premier rejected Lapid’s assertion that he views the justice system and the press as the enemy, stressing that the International Criminal Court in The Hague is the “eighth front” Jerusalem is waging war on.
Lapid is a vocal opponent of Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s plans to reform the judiciary, which were shelved after Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, and wars broke out on the Jewish state’s borders.
On Dec. 14, Levin signaled his wish to relaunch the judicial reform agenda, saying that while the government froze its plans in response to the Hamas invasion, the Supreme Court “decided to exploit this and continue its takeover of powers from the Knesset and government.”
“They left us no choice. It cannot continue like this. We too have rights,” Levin stated in a Facebook post, after the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, ordered him to call a vote in the Judicial Selection Committee for a Supreme Court president by Jan. 16.
Israel’s Ynet news outlet reported on Monday night that Levin had walked out of a meeting with the political factions that make up Netanyahu’s coalition after some party leaders refused to back his plans, including changing the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee.
