Yesh Atid chairman, MK Yair Lapid, on Saturday vowed that his party would never split Jerusalem, even at the expense of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Speaking at an event in Holon, Lapid also launched a verbal tirade against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his lack of diplomatic action following Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer.
“We will not split the capital, even at the cost of a diplomatic settlement,” Lapid said, but added, “However it is possible to reach an agreement, with the help of regional dialogue and preservation of the status quo.”
The issue of keeping Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty has been mentioned several times in the past week, starting with Labor leader MK Yitzhak Herzog and Hatnua chairwoman MK Tzipi Livni, who vowed that they will keep the Western Wall under Israeli sovereignty. This was followed by comments from Netanyahu, who dismissed Herzog and Livni’s comments.
In his remarks on Saturday, Lapid also attacked the government’s conduct after Operation Protective Edge, arguing that Israel should have resumed peace talks and launched discussions with the countries that participated in the Gaza rehabilitation conference in Cairo.
“There was no real diplomatic effort after Protective Edge. This is wrong and cowardly. If you do not do anything, why are you in power?” Lapid charged, adding, “Hamas is not a partner for talks, it is a terrorist organization. I would have acted for the demilitarization of Gaza with those who contributed to the money to rebuild Gaza.”
He further warned that if Netanyahu is re-elected, he will move Israel backwards instead of forward.
“Before we came there were 39 ministers in the Cabinet, of them three ministers without portfolio. We stopped that. This government had 21 ministers and no ministers without portfolio,” Lapid said, adding that if Netanyahu is once again Prime Minister, he would “ruin everything we achieved. He will return the Cabinet to having 30 ministers, will eliminate the winter clock, will cancel equal burden, eliminate the national program for Holocaust survivors. We will not allow him to eliminate everything we worked for.”
Lapid also made clear in his remarks that he was not opposed to forming a coalition with the hareidi parties after the elections, in sharp contrast to his stance after the 2013 elections when he made a pact with the Jewish Home that was meant to leave the hareidim out of the coalition.
“After the new draft law passed as well as the agreement to have yeshivot study secular subjects, I have no problem to sit in the same government with the hareidim,” he said, in remarks that follow recent reports that he tried to form an alternate government with the hareidim in order to unseat Netanyahu while avoiding elections.
Responding on Saturday night to Lapid’s remarks, the Likud party dismissed them and described the former Finance Minister as “frustrated and frightened”.
“Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu led Operation Protective Edge firmly and strongly, but also in a responsible and discretionary manner. The main considerations that stood before him were completing the objectives and tasks assigned to the army, including the destruction of the terrorist tunnels and severely harming the infrastructure of Hamas, while maintaining the security of Israeli citizens and the lives of IDF soldiers in combat situations,” the Likud said.
“Israeli citizens know that these are the real facts and that the security challenges facing Israel are enormous and require an experienced, responsible and determined leadership. All the rest is nonsense coming from a failed, frustrated and frightened politician, who supported the Prime Minister’s firm and level-headed policy during the operation,” it added.
