Yesh Atid party chairman Yair Lapid said Sunday morning he is “fed up” with Palestinian Authority Arabs and “the time has come to separate from them” but with the IDF remaining able to operate to prevent attacks on Jews.
Lapid sounded on Israel radio’s Voice of Israel (Reshet Bet) like a responsible centrist opposition leader, filling the vacuum left by Opposition leader Yitzchak Herzog whose only reactions to the recent wave of terror have been to blame Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and to claim that none of this would have happened if he had been Prime Minister.
Not even the anti-Netanyahu media have swallowed Lapid’s weak and divisive stance, and Lapid took the opportunity today to say that he backs the Prime Minister’s efforts to defeat terror.
Lapid, a former journalist, reads the political tea leaves better than Herzog and even Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, who is huffing and puffing over polls that show his is one of the most trusted political leaders to deal with terrorism.
Seven months after the elections that gave Prime Minister Netanyahu only a one-seat majority in the coalition government, it is as strong as ever. Herzog’s refusal to join a national unity government, along with his pathetic demand that Netanyahu resign, have been met with the sound of one hand clapping.
Lieberman’s rants win him some headlines, but his rise in popularity will last as long as the wave of terror, which appears to be winding down even if it does not end.
Lapid understands better than anyone else outside the coalition that Israelis are more unfired than ever in their distrust of the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas, whose blatant incitement and lies have left the left-wing camp look like a home for dwarfs.
The anti-Netanyahu media, which include the largest electronic outlets and the Yediot Acharonot newspaper, have dismissed Tzipi Livni as useless and are ignoring Herzog for the same reason.
The same media hate Lieberman even more than Netanyahu. The only one left is Lapid, and he milking it for all it’s worth in preparation for the next elections, which don’t appear on the horizon.