Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dragged out the operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip due to the fact that Yair Lapid currently holds the presidential mandate to form a government, sources in the Likud said on Thursday.
The sources made the comments to Maariv and casted doubt on the direction in which Netanyahu is leading the party.
“Netanayhu is playing with the operation in Gaza to drag out the mandate that Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid has to form a government without any real plan,” a senior political adviser who is a member of the party told the paper. “It also doesn’t seem like there is any real intention to eradicate Hamas. He is leaving poor relations between Arabs and Jews and is racing toward a fifth election and taking the country hostage.”
The paper cited other sources in the right-wing bloc that has traditionally supported Netanyahu who said that the prime minister is aiming toward a fifth election which he believes he could win due to a belief that being tough on Hamas will gain him votes.
One of the unnamed sources said that Netanyahu is counting on Naftali Bennett’s Yamina Party being “wiped out” in a future election. “Anyone who thought the right-wing would come to its senses regarding Netanyahu, was wrong,” the sources said. “The prime minister has a firm hold on the right-wing bloc.”Bennett has already become a victim of the operation. Before violence broke out in Gaza, it seemed that he was on his way to becoming prime minister at the head of the "Change Bloc" and in a unity government with Yesh Atid, Meretz, Labor, Yisrael Beytenu, New Hope and with support from the Israeli-Arab Ra'am Party. Last week, Bennett announced that he was withdrawing from the "Change Bloc" and that the recent violence in Gaza and Israel had led him to that decision.
The Likud told Maariv in response: “This is an absurd lie. The prime minister is managing the military operation responsibly and smartly. All the decisions are reached in agreement and after consultations with the defense echelon. Even his political rivals have pointed to the successful way the prime minister has managed this operation.”