Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid on Monday afternoon slammed the "government failures" with regards to Israel's strategic policies regarding the kite terror from Gaza.
At a party meeting, Lapid said, "Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has a new excuse for not doing anything about the situation in Gaza: We're waiting for the Americans. That's his plan. The Americans will bring a plan for Gaza, and will force the State of Israel to accept it. The Trump administration will bring a plan based on 'Gaza first' and will save him from his failures in Gaza."
"For four years, Netanyahu has done nothing in Gaza. He knows - like everyone else knows - that there will be another round of violence, but he's not doing anything to prevent it. He hasn't shown any plan, because he has no plan. So the round will come.
"Fields are being burned, and burning together with them is Israel's deterrence. You can't raise children this way. You can't give up on the principle that those who attack us need to suffer far more. The IDF needs to receive a larger and more aggressive tool kite from the government. The Hamas leaders need to know that if the southern towns are in danger, their lives are in danger."
In fact, the Israeli government told the IDF to kill kite terrorists, but the IDF refused to comply, claiming there is a legal issue with defining all kite terrorists as threatening Israeli lives.
"Someone who worries about security does not wait for the Americans to save him," Lapid said. "Someone who worries about security will guard the principle that only Israel decides Israel's fate. We have not had, and may never have, an administration friendlier than the Trump administration. But they have their own interests, with the Saudis, with the Egyptians, with the Gulf States, with the Russians. We cannot allow them to decide for us on Gaza."
"What we need instead of this is to implement our own plan. On the one hand - a harsh security responds. On the other - a long-term strategic plan to rehabilitate Gaza in exchange for them disarming. It's true, this won't happen in a day. But we should already be four years into the process. If Netanyahu had started working on this four years ago, we wouldn't have incendiary kites and balloons burning our fields today."
The Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza, has repeatedly refused to disarm, claiming such a demand constitutes "aggression" against them. Hamas leaders also use children as human shields and use international aid intended for Gaza's citizens to build tunnels and acquire weapons for use against Israel.
Lapid continued, "If Netanyahu were in the opposition today, he'd be standing on the Gaza border and yelling about how this is no way to deal with security. We're more responsible than that. We're more dignified than him. But still - this is no way to deal with security."
When asked if he would agree to sit in a Netanyahu-led coalition, Lapid responded, "There's no such thing. There's no such agreement and there's no such deal. In a political system, sometimes it's hard to accept the fact that we make decisions based on what's good for the country."