BREAKING NEWS

Netanyahu, Lapid blame each other for early elections

By JPOST.COM STAFF

NOVEMBER 30, 2014 00:50

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took steps over the weekend to make Finance Minister Yair Lapid the scapegoat for the early elections he intends to initiate next month.

Netanyahu blasted Lapid’s 2015 state budget proposal and his flagship zero-percent VAT plan, saying the budget would harm the IDF and Israel’s security, while the VAT plan would “waste billions, won’t lower cost of housing and will help only contractors close to Lapid advisers.”

Lapid lashed back at Netanyahu, telling an audience at a cultural event in Tel Aviv that the prime minister and his associates had not spoken to him in the past month even as serious decisions needed to be made.

“Everything is stuck and the prime minister is standing on the side,” Lapid said. “The housing reforms are stuck, the budget is stuck, our international relations are deteriorating. Instead of passing the budget and dealing with all these problems, they are dealing with the most petty politics.”

Lapid reiterated that he was not afraid of elections but that the people do not want or need them. His associates said Netanyahu would not succeed in making Lapid the fall guy for an unnecessary election.

Barrage of 20 rockets fired at Israel's north

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

04/29/2024 10:18 AM

Gaza negotiations progressing but we remain prudent, says French FM

By REUTERS

04/29/2024 10:17 AM

IDF strikes Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

04/29/2024 08:23 AM

US military says it engaged five unmanned drones over Red Sea

By REUTERS

04/29/2024 04:59 AM