As Maia and Rina Dee, who was murdered in the attack in the Jordan Valley, were laid to rest in Gush Etzion, opposition leader Yair Lapid made a statement to the press regarding his security update from Prime Minister.
Lapid stated: "I am now returning from a security briefing with the Prime Minister. I told Netanyahu that the opposition would back up any action that the security forces would recommend against the wave of terrorism and our enemies in all arenas.
I arrived at Netanyahu's briefing worried and left even more worried. I told Netanyahu that the State of Israel needs a full-time Defense Minister. He should announce that he is definitively removing Gallant's dismissal from the table, admit that his cabinet cannot be trusted, and establish a small and effective security forum to handle the situation."
Lapid called on Netanyahu to remove all parts of the Temple Mount from Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's jurisdiction. "The Temple Mount during Ramadan is the most explosive place in the world. It cannot be run by a TikTok clown who has lost the trust of the police and the forces in the field."
Lapid also called for Minister Bezalel Smotrich's position as a minister in the Ministry of Defense to be abolished: "Netanyahu should abolish the unreasonable situation where there are two ministers in the Ministry of Defense. It cannot be that the messianic faction of the most extreme settlers has a hold on the Ministry of Defense during such a tense period.
Netanyahu should give Commissioner Kobi Shabtai public and full backing and personally supervise what is happening on the Temple Mount. He should act on the recommendation of the security officials regarding Jews going up to the Mount in the coming days, re-establish the unified information system that we established - they, for some reason, canceled it."
The head of the opposition continued: ''What our enemies see in front of them, in all arenas, is an incompetent government. A cabinet that no one trusts. A security minister on probation who was fired for telling the truth. Minister of National Security who leaks tapes of the Commissioner to the media. A Minister of Finance who announces that he wants to wipe out villages.''
According to Lapid, the main threat to Israel was and remains Iran, but the Iranian threat cannot be dealt with this way. "We are losing American support and the international envelope, we are losing deterrence. Israel has become an ungovernable country."
"100 days ago, we handed them over a safe and prosperous country. Gaza suffered a severe blow from us in Operation Breaking Dawn. We returned the targeted countermeasures and calmed down the Judea and Samaria sector. Jerusalem was quiet even on the most explosive dates."
"Even today, the citizens of Israel show impressive resilience in the face of terrorism. The security system was and remains one of the best in the world. The problem is with the leadership. This extreme government is not qualified to manage the State of Israel in such stressful times,'' said Yair Lapid.
Likud responded to opposition leader Lapid's criticism. "It is unfortunate that at a time when Israel is fighting on three fronts and after Prime Minister Netanyahu invited him for a comprehensive security update, Yair Lapid chooses to play petty politics instead of broadcasting a message of unreserved unity against our enemies," Likud said. His capitulation to Hezbollah regarding the gas, which repeats the Hamas narrative regarding the Temple Mount and which is widely quoted in Iran as predicting the destruction of Israel, left us a difficult legacy that we have to deal with these days."
"At a time when Nasrallah and the Haniyeh are sitting together under the picture of the patron from Iran calling for our destruction, the leader of the opposition was expected to show national responsibility," Likud added.