Yesh Atid leader calls for public inquiry commission on Netanyahu's handling of the Iran nuclear issue.
By DANA SOMBERGUpdated: JULY 19, 2015 12:49Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid at the Knesset(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The deal with Iran over its nuclear program that was reached this week represents a huge failure for Israel and a public inquiry commission should be formed to investigate the failure, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said on Saturday.Lapid said that a commission should investigate how Israel's foreign diplomatic efforts allowed a deal to be reached in which the whole issue of supervision of Iran's nuclear program is dealt with "absurdly." Knesset backlash over Iran dealHe laid the blame for Israel not being able to influence the content of the agreement on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The State of Israel was not there because no one is prepared to speak to Netanyahu," Lapid said at a cultural event in Rehovot. Earlier this month the Yesh Atid leader called for Netanyahu's resignation if a bad deal was reached with Iran.Lapid said on Saturday that he would make a written request to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate "Netanyahu's foreign policy failure." He also called for the would-be commission to make its final report on the matter available to the public. Lapid said Netanyahu's foreign diplomacy failure with regard to the Iran deal was the worst such failure in Israel's history. "For years and years the center of his foreign policy was preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The failure in this matter is so great that not just US doors, but also all doors in Russia, Germany, France, the EU, and China are closed to him," Lapid said."In the moment of truth, when it was necessary to prevent this bad deal, no one wanted to listen or speak to Netanyahu," he said. In response to Lapid's remarks, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) said rather than maintain a united Israeli front against the overly generous concessions made to Iran, Lapid amazingly is choosing to attack Netanyahu, who more than any other leader brought the world to impose sanctions on Iran.
Hanegbi said that these sanctions led Iran to the negotiating table and set for Iran a red line that it has yet to cross.Hanegbi accused Lapid of playing a "small and cynical political game for the purpose of self branding."