"Israel requires a different government that will be able to draft the international community to rehabilitate Gaza, but use the building process to remove Hamas’s weapons."
By GIL HOFFMANUpdated: MAY 20, 2021 21:26Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid arrives at the President's Residence, May 5, 2021.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “an unforgivable diplomatic and security failure,” and said “the citizens of Israel are paying the price for it.”Writing on social media on Thursday, Lapid praised the IDF’s functioning in Operation Guardian of the Walls, but said the government failed in all aspects of the operation that were under its authority, including setting policy and protecting its citizens.“If we want to prevent the next time around, Israel requires a different government that will be able to draft the international community to rehabilitate Gaza, but use the building process to remove Hamas’s weapons,” he wrote.Sources in the bloc of parties seeking change led by Lapid reported that progress has been made behind the scenes toward building a coalition that would include Naftali Bennett – despite his leak last Thursday that he was no longer interested in such a government. The sources said Bennett would not receive as good a deal as he was offered before he ruled out joining them, and he would no longer get to be prime minister.Dozens of religious Zionist activists wrote to Bennett and other Yamina MKs on Thursday expressing support for a government that would replace Netanyahu.“Eighty percent of the public can agree on 80% of the issues,” the activists wrote. “This is the time to form a government that can advance those issues of broad agreement. After four elections of trying to defeat each other, the time has come for a unity government and national reconciliation.”
