PM Lapid Slams Netanyahu’s ‘Crazy Government,’ Calls for Protests

Israel’s outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid harshly criticized on Friday Likud chair Benjamin Netanyahu’s impending government formation that includes far right religious and Kahanist parties, calling him “weak” and saying he’s being “blackmailed” by his allies. He also called for Israelis to take to the streets to protest the incoming government, making an appearance at a protest Friday morning in Tel Aviv as well.

In a scathing Facebook post where he outlined how a government should function and provide for its citizen, Lapid wrote that the government that Netanyahu is forming, making coalition deals and aligning himself with ultra-Orthodox, far right anti-Arab and anti-LGBT lawmakers is “crazy,” saying that there was “no other way to describe what is happening,” and adding that “Likud has become a minor partner in its own government.”

Lapid referenced several high-profile examples in the last month which he asserts would make the government impossible to manage and govern. He highlighted Netanyahu’s appointment of Avi Moaz, leader of the vocally anti-LGBT Noam party, to oversee the database of educational enrichment programs that are offered to schools and “2 billion shekels.”

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He signed off his post urging for Israelis to flock to the streets and the bridges, a likely reference to the weekly Saturday night anti-Netanyahu protests in 2020. Lapid said that he and his partners will do everything in their power to “protect the courts, the IDF and the schools,” and that they are “fighting for [our] country and we have no intention of giving up.”