Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a private conversation that he does not believe his rotation as prime minister with Yair Lapid will happen, Channel 12 reported on Thursday.
“The government will likely break up between the budget’s passage and the rotation for a variety of reasons,” Bennett was quoted as saying.
Bennett tweeted in response that the report does not reflect his point of view or his feeling of obligation to his agreement with Lapid. He praised Lapid as a terrific foreign minister, partner and friend.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu laid the cornerstone for the hippodrome amphitheater, a tourism project his government initiated, in Beit She’an on Thursday.
Beit She’an Mayor Jackie Levy of Likud invited Netanyahu and former tourism minister Yariv Levin to the event and not current Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov of Yesh Atid.
Apparently, in response, Razvozov wrote Levy a letter saying that his ministry’s funding for the project was being reconsidered.
“This isn’t Iran,” Netanyahu said in words intended for Razvozov. “Aren’t you ashamed? When the Likud comes back to power, we’ll fix everything they did.”
Levy tore up the threatening letter during his speech.
Razvozov responded that Levy wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer shekels on an event intended to flatter Netanyahu.
“MK Netanyahu never did anything for the good of the residents, and we will make sure the money goes to them and not to the hollow PR of the Likud.”
Yesh Atid and Labor condemned Likud MKs who are set to speak at a rally against the government in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Saturday night. Flyers for the event called the square by its former name, Malchei Israel Square, and one of the featured speakers is Religious Zionist Party MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, who threatened Rabin before he was assassinated.
Likud MK Ofir Akunis said he would cancel his participation at the event if the organizers do not refer to it as Rabin Square.
“The Rabin assassination is one of the darkest incidents of the history of our people,” Akunis said. “It was a disgusting criminal act, the exact opposite of democracy.”
Sources close to Netanyahu said that even though its organizers and speakers are close to him, he is not involved with the event in any way.