The chairman of the Yesh Atid party, the prime minister of the transitional government who will finish his post in the coming days, Yair Lapid went up to make a speech today (Tuesday) in the Knesset plenum, and in an attempt to generate emotion against the elected government, he addressed the mothers who voted for the right-wing parties.
“I want to ask this mother who voted for Likud. Is this what you wanted? When you stood at the polling station and put a ballot for Mhal, is this what you voted for? that’s what you wanted? That with your vote the most extreme government in the country’s history will be established?”
“How do you feel about the fact that the first promise of the new government, the first thing they agreed on, is to pay Yeshiva students more money than IDF soldiers? How do you feel about the fact that public transportation in your city will cost more, just because you are not ultra-Orthodox? Because it is part of the agreements. In ultra-orthodox cities they will pay less for public transportation. Why so. Because they can.”
Lapid continued to agitate: “Our government increased the salaries of IDF soldiers by 50%, the new government prefers to give the money – from your taxes – to eighteen-year-old youths to make sure they don’t enlist and don’t work.”
“I am not ready to give you ownership of Judaism. It is not yours. You are no more Jewish than us. The Western Wall is also ours, the Kiddush on Arab Shabbat is also ours, the eternity of Israel belongs to all of us.”
According to Lapid, “This is not the Likud government, it is certainly not the Netanyahu government. Netanyahu is weak, terrified of his trial, he was taken over by people younger than him, more radical and determined than him. Smotrich and Deri control this government. Netanyahu is a junior partner.”
“You won the elections, I don’t argue with that, but you did not and will not win Israeli democracy. The independence of the courts is not subject to the election results. Criminal cases are not subject to the election results. Women’s rights are not subject to the election results.”
He threatened: “We are not your friars. We are not here just to pay taxes and send our children to the army. We love this country just as much as you, and we are Jews just as much as you, and we will not let you destroy our democracy.”
“We will fight it, and we will not give up our beloved country to them. This is political life. Sometimes you are up, sometimes you are down, but you never, never, never, never, never give up. It will be hard, so we will work harder. It will be challenging , then we will fight more.”