MK Yair Lapid (Blue and White) attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area after this week’s Knesset election.
Speaking with Channel 13 Monday morning, the former Finance Minister criticized Netanyahu for planning a unilateral annexation of large swaths of Judea and Samaria, and noted that the prime minister had never applied sovereignty to these areas during his previous 13 years in office.
“It is one thing to have election propaganda, but at least do the election propaganda well. This wasn’t done well. The thing that limits the prime minister during election season is when people ask him why he didn’t do any of this up until now. He has nothing new to say. Netanyahu’s problem is that he’s been in office for too long, and that’s not healthy.”
Lapid also defended his call for a “secular unity government”, saying that he referred to secular values, rather than an exclusively secular makeup of the next government.
“That wasn’t meant to disqualify people or parties,” said Lapid, adding that he meant he hoped to see the formation of a government which would promote expanding secular education in haredi schools, public transportation on the Sabbath in secular areas, drafting haredi youths into the IDF, and civil marriages.
Last week, Netanyahu announced that if he is reelected prime minister, he will apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea areas early in the 22nd Knesset’s term.
In addition, Netanyahu said he would later apply sovereignty to all Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria within the framework of the US-backed Middle East peace plan, dubbed the “Deal of the Century”.