Lapid against Gantz and Eisenkot: "They don't affect anything, go home"

The head of the opposition and chairman of "Yesh Atid" Yair Lapid this morning (Thursday) sharply criticized ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot ("the state camp") and called on them to leave the government. "They are keeping alive an illegitimate and failed government. They have no influence on anything, so go home and let us work on overthrowing this government," he said in a conversation with Udi Segal and his Tel on 103FM . He also called for an immediate kidnapping deal and severely criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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At the beginning of the conversation, Lapid was asked what he would do if he were prime minister now. To this he replied: "I would stop the fighting, reject Rafih and make the deal and return the abductees. This government abandoned them, its duty is to return them. The responsibility is on their heads and they should return home. There is fighting, there is no war in Gaza, so basically we are asking for something that is at all Israeli interest. It is advisable not to enter Rafah before you conclude an organized arrangement with the Egyptians on the Rafah crossing, which the government is not doing at the moment, because the Egyptians want the Palestinian Authority to be part of the management of the crossing and you have to evacuate 1.3 million people to the north, so there is no right now anyway War, then make a deal and return the kidnapped. That's the only thing that justifies the existence of this government, so what would I do? That's what I would do."

Lapid also said that "Beyond that, there is a series of things that the government should do and is not doing, such as correctly managing the humanitarian aid, setting a date for the return of the evacuees to the North, presenting an orderly plan for 'the day after,' such as telling the Saudis and the Americans, 'Let's start talking about What do we want to happen in the Middle East', certainly in front of the Iranians, such as changing our entire foreign policy and our entire propaganda concept and above all establishing another government, that's what I would do."

When you talk about the end of the war, Hamas might not have released all the abductees, it would have used this as a victory over Israel. In such a course of dealing, Israel's policy is maintained throughout the last years of deterring Hamas, as if Hamas, the weakest of Hamas, but keeping it in power.
"This is a very complex interpretation of the simple thing. In the end, Liri Albag has to return home, precisely because of the reasons you described, the anxiety of the right-wing government over Mala Aalek, that maybe someone will say that they are not a government of total victory – they are not bringing Hersh and Leiri and others home. Whoever you can Return, return and then keep trying until you return the others as well, they die there, every day they die there."

Is there anyone who can be returned now and the government does not return?
"I think that in December we were on the brink of a deal and it should have been done and we braggadocio and tried to achieve another achievement, and are afraid of Ben Gabir and Smotrich and deal with politics instead of substance. This war is the most terrible thing that has happened to the people of Israel and the State of Israel, and the most terrible thing within the most terrible thing are the abductees and this that they are not at home yet. All these entanglements and 'maybe Hamas will say', we will have to kill Hamas, Yahya Sinwar must be killed, Muhammad Daf must be killed, the Hamas battalions must be destroyed, but you will do this over the course of years, a complex course For 15 years you have paid them, you have helped them, now we ask you for one thing.

"You can't defeat them until you define what will be in their place," continued the head of the opposition. "What is the army's big problem? The army went to war without having the goals of the war defined for it, and the goals of the war were not defined for it for political reasons so as not to say God forbid that the civil administration of Gaza the day after, the Palestinian Authority will be part of it, because you know what Smotrich will think about this nonsense, if you don't define what its purpose is, then how can there be victory if you don't know what the purpose of the war is? This whole business is incompetent and it has to go home ".

Regarding Eisenkot and Gantz. They tell us that they have a real influence on what is happening and especially on the negotiations with the abductees.
"So where are the abductees? In the end, it wasn't even a secret that Netanyahu pulled the powers to him and he does what he wants. In the end, there is some sort of result test, if you look and there are no abductees and the army is not really fighting right now inside Gaza, and in the north, close to a hundred thousand Citizens… I was in the north this week, you are standing in Kfar Gilead, looking from the balcony at an empty settlement and I was in the bombed Kiryat Shmona, a ghost town, what are they influencing?"

Maybe for the one moment, if an opportunity arises for a deal and to tell Netanyahu 'enough, this is what we are doing now'.
"Waiting for this one moment has kept this government alive for six months. Netanyahu should have gone home on October 8. Any decent person would have resigned on October 8, saying 'I failed, I committed a crime, I caused the greatest disaster for the people of Israel, I'm going Instead, they entered the government and kept it alive for half a year, and disaster followed disaster, and kept an illegitimate and failed government alive A person who does not want to leave, this government should go home because the event is not managed Let us work to overthrow this government."

You were supposed to have a security update meeting with the Prime Minister yesterday and it was postponed.
"Yes, for tonight."

Do you think there is a reason why the Prime Minister is delaying the security update?
"I think the prime minister should uphold the law. It's not that I have a problem getting an update on what's going on, after all there are tools, but still, the type of exchange between a prime minister and an opposition leader, both of whom are exposed to the same intelligence materials, is important. I made sure When I was prime minister and he was the head of the opposition, it's not a friends club, it's an Israeli institution that exists in a democracy, all democratic duties are foreign to him, so it's not the most important thing that he doesn't manage."

The Americans are trying to sell the Middle East some kind of big deal with Saudi Arabia that would include normalization, which would also include some kind of Israeli commitment to two states or a Palestinian state in the future. Are you involved in this too?
"Yes, and a supporter."

I mean, if Netanyahu comes now and presents a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, will you support it?
"I will support it. You don't need to be in the government for this, but you can support it. Whatever is good for the State of Israel, I will support. This deal, we actually received a demonstration in the Iranian attack of the importance of strategic depth and cooperation, also with the Americans and certainly with countries in the Middle East. This is something that for years Israel aspired to, and precisely for bad reasons, happened, and it had to be nurtured and it still needs to be nurtured. I don't think it can happen with the current government, because the most basic demand of the Saudis, but also of the Americans in a certain sense, is that the Israeli government Tell me what her vision is for Judea and Samaria and Gaza, and with which Palestinians she is willing to talk, and this government doesn't know how to do that, and that's why it's missing a historic opportunity for us."

"There could have been a historic opportunity here, instead what seems to be developing right now is that the Americans and the Saudis will write a framework paper on their relations and another framework paper for the drawer on what should be done with the State of Israel, and we are missing an opportunity to be involved, to influence this framework agreement, to express our opinion Instead, Drummer is walking around in Washington and everyone is telling him, 'You have to say what you want to happen, if you want to be involved in the process,' this is not the way to manage it."

Regarding Eisenkot and Gantz.
"I am committed to continue working, morning, evening, noon, night, whenever necessary, in order to get them out of this government, and then do everything for it to fall."

The same government of October 7 is still in place.
"In the first two months, Likud members also walked around with hard feelings and said to themselves, 'This is a disaster and we caused it and we are to blame,' but the fact that Gantz and Eisenkot were in the government slowly made them come back to themselves. It is, in my view, a very serious sin and a very unfortunate thing that it happened and a very unfortunate that they are there. Also They don't influence and make this government legitimate, it is illegitimate. He (Netanyahu) needs to go home for the sake of the State of Israel, to save the State of Israel from internal disintegration, from endless pain and a very serious damage to both security and the economy."

The one who is going home is Defense Minister Aharon Haliva and Finance Minister Smotrich says that the Chief of Staff is not the one who should make the senior appointments at the top of the IDF. What do you think?
"Then who will make the senior appointments at the top of the IDF, Smotrich? Because he wants to name his friends? Their shamelessness is always breathtaking. With Haliva, in his resignation letter, there appeared a sentence that 'there is no authority without responsibility', apparently a sentence in Hebrew that this government did not understand. The highest authority is that of the political echelon. Haliva did the right thing by resigning, in the end it's an unparalleled intelligence failure and he did well to resign, but the first one who needs to resign is called Netanyahu and all the others are his government, their authority, their responsibility."

And what about the Chief of Staff?
"Also, the top security officials have already said that they will resign, but first the one who needs to resign is Netanyahu, otherwise he will just use the opportunity to appoint people who will say that he should not resign. This is an opportunity that should not be given. They need to go home. The nation of Israel is in a disaster zone and needs to be rescued." .