In an opinion piece for the Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid strongly defended the Israeli strikes on Iran, asserting that the move was both necessary and justified.
Lapid warned that Tehran “could advance its nuclear program and work to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons,” as well as “fund and support terror organizations that do everything they can to murder Jews in Israel and abroad.” He added that Iran “could target Israelis abroad, including mass‑casualty terror attacks,” and even seek to “normalize … the idea that it is legitimate to attempt to destroy Israel and wipe out the Jewish people.”
According to Lapid, these threats are not hypothetical. He reminded readers that “Iran stands behind Hamas and Hezbollah, behind the massacre on October 7, and behind the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and further attacks from Bulgaria to Mumbai, from Kenya to Thailand.” He emphasised that the regime has “repeatedly said, without hesitation and without shame, that its ultimate goal is the destruction of the State of Israel.”
Lapid contrasted Israel’s position with Iran’s, stating: “And to avoid any doubt, Israel isn’t interested in destroying Iran. We have no historical or territorial conflict with the Iranian people. We have no demands of one another except for one: The Iranian regime wants us to die, and we refuse.”
Though politically opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lapid affirmed his support for the timing and necessity of the military action. “The whole country is united in this moment, when faced with an enemy sworn to our destruction, nothing will divide us,” he wrote. He concluded: “We went to war for the only reason that justifies war - we had no choice. A nuclear Iran would have been an existential threat to the State of Israel. Iran cannot be a nuclear state. Not now. Not ever.”