Deputy Defense Minister Avi Dichter on Tuesday posted a response to a Facebook post by MK Yair Lapid following Dichter’s decision to support Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the primaries for the Likud leadership.
In his post, Dichter criticized Blue and White leader Benny Gantz for aspiring to serve as Prime Minister despite having no previous political experience as an MK or a government minister.
"There is no precedent in Israeli politics, where a candidate is running for Prime Minister who has been neither a minister nor a Knesset member,” he wrote.
"Lapid knows full well that it is arrogant to aspire to lead a country like Israel, without having sat in the government for one day. Without any experience, Gantz is being pushed by Lapid and others to this position of Prime Minister and has no parliamentary or governmental knowledge and experience," Dichter added.
"As a concerned citizen and MK and Deputy Defense Minister, I choose to support the best candidate among the contestants," he clarified.
Dichter dismissed the claims that the indictments against Netanyahu prevent him from serving as Prime Minister, writing, "The indictments against Netanyahu will be examined in court in due course. Until it makes its decision, Netanyahu may run and serve as Israel’s Prime Minister. The way in which Lapid cites the indictment is intended to hide his position and opinions on the national issues which are not even compatible with Gantz’s. That is legitimate, but we must disclose the facts as well as the truth. Even his father, Tommy Lapid of blessed memory, who was not moderate in his criticism of Prime Ministers, said clear things about a Prime Minister who had been indicted.”
"The truth is that under the rule of Netanyahu, the man and the experience, the State of Israel has taken huge steps forward in almost every category that can be measured," he stated.
"But it looks like the heights that Netanyahu brought us to in the past two years are unprecedented," added Dichter. "The US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and stating that the settlements in Judea and Samaria are legal – wow, what a two-year period. Along with the US's possible recognition of the Jordan Valley as Israel's eastern border we will complete a reality that until two years ago sounded like a dream ... Mr. Lapid, these are the fruits of experience."
"That's why I decided to support Netanyahu and called not to support Gantz. I don't want someone to do his political internship on the back of the state. Did you understand that Lapid?” concluded Dichter.