Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid delivered the following remarks at the Knesset hearing on the peace accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates:
Mr. Speaker, Prime Minister,
The accord with the United Arab Emirates is an excellent agreement. I congratulate the Prime Minister, I congratulate the citizens of Israel. It's a good agreement and a real achievement. The Prime Minister has a tendency to complain that he doesn't get enough credit. So here you are, excellent agreement. When it is deserved, it is deserved.
And when it isn't deserved, it isn't. That's how it works.
If you want people to give you credit when you succeed then you'll have to accept the criticism when you don't. You can't demand objectivity when it comes to success but when you're told you failed, decide that it comes from bias.
Here is your objective analysis for 2020: You reached a good agreement with the UAE. You managed the relationship with the President of the United States well. You failed completely when it comes to the relationship with the Democratic Party and American Jewry. You failed totally in managing the health crisis. You failed totally in managing the economic crisis. You failed when you tried to get a million shekels in tax breaks during the height of a national crisis.
You failed because you enacted an unnecessary lockdown for political reasons. You failed with the unpaid leave framework. You failed because there is no budget. You failed when you formed a government of 36 ministers which is incapable of getting anything done.
You failed to lead by example during the lockdown. You failed in appointing key senior figures and you failed when the entire senior leadership of the Finance Ministry resigned. You failed, if you ever even tried, to unite the Israeli public during its difficult challenges. Instead of leading the citizens of Israel, you caused them to hate one another.
You want us to give you credit for your achievements, then accept the criticism of your failures, they go together. Real leadership accepts that these things go together. What you're doing, is to complain all day about the lack of credit you get. You blame others, evade responsibility and engage in never-ending victimhood.
A million Israelis became unemployed just to sully your name. One in four young people is suffering from a lack of food security just to harm you. One in five businesses in Israel will close down this year just so Walla can write negative things about you.
You used to be a respectable Prime Minister. Some of the things you did then are paying off now. So yes, the agreement with the UAE is a positive achievement. That’s the truth. But we live here. Not in the Gulf. We have a crisis here at home. And here at home your failure in the management of the crisis is one of the worst our country has ever known. It’s time for a leader who will bring peace here at home, between us, between the Israelis.
Prime Minister, it’s time for you to go.