MK Yair Lapid
MK Yair LapidFlash 90

Israel’s minister of sport and culture, Miri Regev (Likud) ripped Blue and White MK Yair Lapid over a recent social media comment in which he appeared to back changing Israel from a Jewish state into a “state of all of its citizens”.

On Friday, Lapid tweeted a series of comments, criticizing incoming Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich (United Right) over his comments to Israel Hayom.

"Bezalel, at least check the facts," wrote Lapid. "The increase in the number of recruits was because I passed the Draft Law. What you refuse to understand is that our children are just as important and no less valuable. They just are not willing to be taken advantage of."

Lapid added, "If a secular young man at the age of 18 must enlist, so does a young haredi man. It's possible to make adjustments, but the principle that everyone must serve the state and all are equal before the law is sacred."

"And another thing, Smotrch," Lapid added. Israel should be a state of all its citizens", said Lapid. "The values ​​of the gay community are not distorted."

Lapid quickly came under fire for use of the phrase “state of all its citizens”, a phrase generally used by those who oppose Israel’s status as a Jewish state and seek to strip the country of its Jewish character.

In a follow-up tweet, Lapid said that he is “totally against a state of all its citizens and always have been.”

“Israel is a Jewish and democratic state and that’s what it always will be.”

Lapid later joked that he had written the controversial tweet in haste after coming out of the shower.

“Here are two insights into ‘a state of all its citizens’: 1) I’m opposed, 2) Never tweet after I take a shower but before I dry off.”

In a tweet Sunday, Regev mocked Lapid’s explanation for his tweet and accused him of hiding his left-wing beliefs.

“Here are two insights into ‘leftist disguises’,” Regev tweeted Sunday. “1) When they tweet right after a shower but before they’ve dried off, they haven’t had a chance to disguise themselves as right-wingers. 2) That’s when their true believes come out. Lapid is and will always be a leftist.”