Yesh Atid chairperson Yair Lapid struck out at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government on Channel 2‘s “Meet the Press” program, and announced that despite having nosedived in elections from 19 seats in 2013 to 11 now, he wants to be the next prime minister of Israel.
“Sources close to the prime minister offered me to be foreign minister,” Lapid revealed, confirming a report from last Thursday. “There’s no way that I would enter this government. Likud can deny it (the offer – ed.) until tomorrow morning.”
According to the MK, Netanyahu’s people contacted MK Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) and asked that his party join the government – even though Netanyahu fired Lapid and then-Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) in calling the recent elections for their alleged “putsch” attempt.
“We told them ‘no way.’ We need to prepare the groundwork for the next government,” said Lapid. Criticizing the government, he added, “they took the Foreign Ministry and divvied it up to six different ministers, and later they’re shocked we have a problem with foreign relations.”
Lapid also spoke about international attempts to boycott Israel, saying, “the hypocrisy of the world is unbelievable, this is pure anti-Semitism, but if they think that it (a peace deal – ed.) is possible without any political process and it won’t boomerang on us – of course it will come back to get us.”
Remarking on the multiple portfolios being doled out to individual MKs, he noted, “every minister says ‘what I got isn’t enough.'”
“The Transportation Minister, as if there was already a subway, is also I think the Intelligence Minister; the Internal Security Minister – as if there were no problems with the police and there is a new police commissioner and everything’s okay – he’s also the Minister for Strategic Threats.”
“Everyone is looking at the other and saying ‘he got more than me’ – that’s a lack of national responsibility,” said Lapid. “We think that we are the alternative to the government, not other parties. Yesh Atid wants to be the ruling party after the coming elections, that also means that I am the candidate for prime minister.”
