נבחרי ימינה
נבחרי ימינהPhoto by Tomer Neuberg/FLASH90

The Yamina party sent a letter to the chairman of the Blue and White Party demanding he apologize to the Minister of Education, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, for MK Yair Lapid's comparison of him to radical terrorist supporter Hiba Yazbak of the Joint List.

In an interview with a newsletter distributed in synagogues on Shabbat, Lapid stated that, "even if they constitute the 61th [Knesset seat required for a coalition government], we will not [be part of a coalition] with Rabbi Peretz or Hiba Yazbak."

In the letter, entitled "Apology Request to the Minister of Education, Rabbi Rafi Peretz," the Yamina party demands that Gantz issue an apology for Lapid's comparison.

"In his blatant vulgarity MK Yair Lapid compared Rabbi Rafi Peretz, a helicopter pilot, IDF fighter, and brigadier general, who has educated dozens of generations of soldiers in the IDF preparatory program, and established a settlement on the Egyptian border in the Negev following his expulsion from his home in Gush Katif to a sickening terrorist supporter," added the letter.

"We demand your condemnation of the criminal comparison and an apology to Rabbi Peretz," the members of Yamina concluded.

In an interview, Lapid explained his position and said, "I think some of Rabbi Peretz's statements and the party agreement he made with Itamar Ben-Gvir removed him from the spectrum of Israeli legitimacy."

According to him, "When they made the political alliance, [the picture of Baruch Goldstein] was still hanging [on Ben-Gvir's wall]. Anyone who makes such a political ally can no longer be considered politically legitimate," claimed Lapid.