Yair Lapid
Yair LapidFlash 90

Attorney and rabbi Dov Halbertal warned that Finance Minister Yair Lapid's crusade to enlist the hareidim into the IDF will lead to him being murdered a la former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, assassinated in 1995 following the Oslo Accords he signed with the Palestinian Authority.

Halbertal, a former bureau chief in the Chief Rabbinate who was close to Torah sage Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, appeared on Galei Yisrael this week, and related that an important yeshiva world figure warned him that "there's going to be a new Rabin murder. Yair Lapid will be murdered by a hareidi."

The radio show's host called the words "explosive," saying Shin Bet (Internal Security) could soon be waiting outside the studio to question Halbertal over the statements.

"I don't know about Shin Bet, I'm just saying what they told me," responded Halbertal. "Someone to whom I ascribe importance tells me we aren't far from that. The murder of Lapid will be the next Rabin murder in line."

Aside from successfully pushing for a new law on hareidi enlistment to include criminal sanctions on hareidi draft dodgers, Lapid leaped on a loophole to retroactively cancel all funding to the yeshivas for February, igniting angry hareidi protests around the nation and calls for a "fight to the death."

Hareidi MK Yaakov Asher (United Torah Judaism) warned earlier this month of a "long period of pushing the hareidim to the wall that will bring extremism. This is how the 'hilltop youth' phenomenon started, when the right-wing felt pushed to the wall."

Last January, Rabbi Halbertal spoke with Voice of srael public radio and said "on one side, we have Yair Lapid, who represents the State of Tel Aviv that elected him alongside with Naftali Bennett, Lapid’s mirror image. On the other side we have the hareidim and Jerusalem. Now, the real question is what identity do we wish to see for the future of the state of Israel?"