Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was caught on camera on Monday as he gestured to suggest that opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu is crazy, as Netanyahu spoke at the Knesset plenum.
The incident occurred during a "40 signatures" debate in the Knesset, which the Prime Minister is forced to attend after the opposition gathers 40 signatures calling upon him to do so.
During the debate, Bennett took to the podium and attacked the opposition: "I want to understand - does it hurt you that we stopped the suitcases of cash for Hamas? Does it hurt you that we prevented sixth and seventh and eighth elections? Is that your vision? It hurt you that we opened the kashrut market to competition."
"The reason you are not in the government - because you have not been able to form a government four times. Most Israeli citizens are shocked by your vision to go to another election," Bennett said. "Does it hurt you that we didn't crash the economy again after three crashes?"
"Look beyond the Knesset - people go to work, children go to school. We do not advocate a panic approach, and do not think it is the end of humanity as someone said," the prime minister told the opposition.
Netanyahu then fired back and said, "Naftali, you asked, 'What hurts us?' It hurts us that within a few months you destroyed the tremendous achievements we brought to the citizens of Israel. Eight months ago, we transferred to you the first country in the world to exit from COVID safely. We were then ranked in the top five in the world successfully in dealing with the pandemic."
"In recent months, almost 3,000 Israelis have died in Israel from the coronavirus. Unfortunately, most of them died for no reason because we have vaccines today. It is a completely different situation. We have vaccines, we have brought millions of vaccines, me and my colleagues here,” he continued.
''A month before the election, there was no more lockdown, Naftali, there is no need for lockdowns when there are vaccines. But other things are needed. Limit crowds, enforce masks, intensify the third and fourth vaccination campaigns. With the third vaccines in particular a thousand people died because the third vaccine was waiting in containers in Europe even though we bought them in advance. You waited a month until you brought them in and a thousand people died for no reason,” charged Netanyahu.
''You did nothing and another 2,000 died. The hospital wars are overwhelmed. Records show critically ill patients, postponing surgeries, postponing life-saving treatments, and all when there are vaccines! What a failure," Netanyahu said.