Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid has lashed out at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu following last night’s blistering attack by the PM on the now-fired Finance Minister, as well as former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni.

Noting the “personal attack” directed towards him by Netanyahu – who accused Lapid and Livni of leading a “putsch” from within the coalition – Lapid insisted on issuing a response of his own.

“Yesterday you stood in front of the entire nation and announced that you were dragged the State of Israel into unnecessary elections that no one but you wanted, because you are detached. You live in your own aquarium,” Lapid fired.

Lapid further accused the PM of preferring “to paralyze the economy” via snap elections, rather than to come to an agreement with him over the budget, and of preferring “to protect the jobs of your close associates, because you are so detached that you don’t understand that everyone sees this corruption.”

“To do all this and to cry that they tried to conduct a ‘putsch’ against you – something that never was – that isn’t just being detached, it’s living in a dream world.”

“I tried to do a putsch? Who told you this nonsense?”

Lapid further claimed that the decision to call new elections would backfire on Netanyahu.

“He made a mistake – and the price of this mistake is that he won’t be the prime minister.”