Lapid: Yesh Atid will connect with other parties to replace Netanyahu

Yesh Atid leader slams Netanyahu for failing to bring security to Israel's citizens and stagnating on diplomatic front.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Yair Lapid (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Yair Lapid
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Yesh Atid leader MK Yair Lapid said Monday that his party would connect with other parties in order to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in elections.
Speaking after Netanyahu at the Globes business conference in Tel Aviv, Lapid said that Yesh Atid would lead the Center bloc, and once elected would resume all of its plans that had been stymied by Netanyahu.
Lapid was scheduled to meet with Hatnua leader MK Tzipi Livni on Monday to discuss how they would work together in the coming election.
Lapid accused the prime minister of treating the voting public like a four-year-old-child, promising them sweets on the one hand, and frightening them on the other hand.
Lapid suggested that Netanyahu did not know the details of Lapid's 0 VAT bill which he had shut down.
He took offense at the prime minister's statement that the 0 VAT bill was not viable because houses are not commodities whose prices are under government supervision.
Lapid answered that, as part of the 0 VAT tax break plan, an apparatus had also been put in place to ensure that contractors could not raise housing prices as the tax break brought more buyers into the market.
"Mr. Prime Minister, could it be that you didn't read the budget that you voted for in the government and in the Knesset? Could it be that you passed 0 VAT and then torpedoed it without even checking what's in this bill?" Lapid asked.
Lapid said that in Netanyahu's previous term, housing prices had jumped 80 percent and the prime minister had done nothing to stop it.
He also slammed Netanyahu for not delivering on his promise to bring security to the citizens of Israel, saying people were now afraid to walk around on the streets of Jerusalem.
Lapid said that on the diplomatic front, Netanyahu understands that it is imperative that Israel separate from the Palestinians through a two-state solution, but he does nothing, because he is frightened of the right-wing of his own party.
"Netanyahu will do nothing, because that has become his only default action," Lapid said.
"We need to go to a regional process, with the Arab League, in order to reach an agreement that will lead to separation from the Palestinians. The fight against radical Islam enables us to join the coalition of moderate Arab states - Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states - and to reach a comprehensive diplomatic agreement. If we don't do so, our security will be damaged, our economy will get worse and worse, and the whole Zionist enterprise stands in danger, Lapid concluded.