Lapid cool with Bennett's wife's Facebook jibes

Gilat Bennett criticizes Lapid for having "extra left-wing views" and for taking credit for the successes of her husband; Lapid doesn't take the bait.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Finance Minister Yair Lapid (photo credit: REUTERS)
Finance Minister Yair Lapid
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid defended Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett’s wife Gilat’s taunting him on his Facebook page on Tuesday, saying that she has a right to speak her mind.
Pastry chef Gilat Bennett had gotten into the habit of going to Lapid’s official page on Facebook and attacking him, Channel 10 revealed on Monday night.
She criticized Lapid in her posts for having “extra-left-wing views” and for taking credit for the successes of her husband in the Economy Ministry.
“So which other terrific reform plan of my (skilled, intelligent, innovative, courageous) husband do you intend to take credit for tomorrow????” she wrote. “What causes you to wake up in the morning and say to yourself that you intend to take credit for someone else’s work? It is unfathomable.”
In another post, she called Lapid empty and shallow and coined the term “Lapidkipedia.”
The posts were removed from Facebook after Channel 10 political analyst Raviv Drucker reported about them.
Lapid, who closely monitors his own Facebook page, said in radio interviews on Tuesday morning that he was not bothered by what Bennett had posted.
“It is her right,” he said.
“It cannot be that everyone has a right to free speech except for Naftali Bennett’s wife. “There have been much worse things written about me in talkbacks.”
Relations between Lapid and Naftali Bennett have deteriorated since they formed a political alliance that resulted in the formation of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
While they once called each other “brothers,” they now regularly criticize each other publicly and speak even more negatively about each other in private conversations.
This was not the first time that Gilat Bennett made news on Facebook.
When her husband took questions from his constituents on the social media site last July, she wrote him: “When are you coming home?” The minister responded to her on Facebook hours later with an endearing message to her and their four children: “My love, I will be stuck here until late with votes... tomorrow night. Good night, kisses to the dwarfs.”