In the wake of an unprecedented Iranian attack, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid charged on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration was responsible for a “total loss of Israeli deterrence”.
Former prime minister Lapid also said that “Jewish terrorist violence” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank was “out of control” under Netanyahu in a harsh critique published on X.
Calling for early elections, Lapid stated that Netanyahu had brought “heaps of destruction from Beeri to Kiryat Shmona” since he came back to power in late 2022 as the head of a coalition with far-right parties.
The continuing conflict began on October 7 when Hamas fighters seized Beeri, a kibbutz community near the Gaza border. Meanwhile, months of cross-border fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon caused damage to Kiryat Shmona, a town in the north.
Lapid’s comments were made two days after Israel was hit by over 300 missiles and drones fired by Iran, which supports both Hezbollah and Hamas, in retribution for a deadly attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
In the late Saturday aerial attack, which marked the first direct military action by Iran against its longtime enemy Israel, almost all of the rockets were intercepted by Israel, the US, and other allies.
Netanyahu’s cabinet has weighed Israel’s response to the Iranian attack, but the prime minister has not made any public comments.
In the West Bank, where violence has soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Israeli settlers torched Palestinian homes and cars over the weekend, killing at least two people, after an Israeli teen was “murdered in a suspected terrorist attack”, according to the Israeli military.
Lapid warned that “this government will bring destruction upon us if we don’t move.” She was referring to the surge in “terrorist” settler attacks.
The government, comprising hardline settlers, has given priority to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has been occupying since 1967.
In recent months, Netanyahu has been subjected to pressure from a growing anti-government movement as well as widespread protests over the fate of the hostages held in Gaza.
In response to Lapid, the prime minister’s Likud party released a statement highlighting Netanyahu’s involvement in “the global campaign” to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, something Tehran says it is doing.
