Thursday, February 25, 2021

Yair Lapid's crookedness can't be overlooked

Leftist Lapid, if it hasn't been discussed enough, poses a serious threat for Israel, based on the likelihood he'll end up getting the most votes on the left end of the spectrum for Knesset, and Benjamin Netanyahu made a related point the other day:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu derides right-wing rivals Gideon Sa’ar of New Hope and Naftali Bennett of Yamina, claiming they will partner with the centrist Yesh Atid and its leader Yair Lapid after the election to form “a left-wing government.”

“It’s the eve of Purim, and Bennett and Gideon keep wearing costumes. They say all day ‘We won’t sit with Lapid.’ You ask them about the weather and they say ‘We won’t sit with Lapid.’ They’ve got to deny it, but they have no way of forming a government without it being a left-wing government headed by Lapid,” Netanyahu says.

Notably, neither party has said it will not sit with Lapid in a coalition, only that he will not lead that coalition.
Bennett may have belatedly said he won't sit in a coalition with Lapid, but that doesn't mean damage wasn't done. What if Lapid is willing to form a coalition with the anti-Israeli Arabic parties in the Knesset? That's something that can't be ruled out as a possibility. And if that happens, Bennett is unlikely to admit he's guilty of causing trouble that could've been avoided by being divisive. If somebody as awful as Lapid regrettably is takes over the premiership, Bennett will owe a considerable apology.

Update: Caroline Glick also wrote in Newsweek about why Lapid will spell disaster if he manages to become prime minister, the danger posed by Bennett, and also noted how one of Lapid's potential allies, Saar, was associating with members of the anti-Trump activist group, the Lincoln Project, whose leader has been accused of sex offenses:
...Sa'ar's party is now polling between 11–14 seats. Pollsters assess that around 30 percent of Saar's voters come from Likud's base. By pledging not to join a Netanyahu-led government, Sa'ar's party is the only one moving votes away from the right-wing bloc to the left-wing bloc. Sa'ar hired NeverTrump political consultants from the Lincoln Project to run his campaign. While he was forced to suspend the Lincoln Project's consultancy following embarrassing disclosures about the group's decision to suppress criticism of their colleague John Weaver despite his well-known online sexual harassment of young men, Sa'ar is following the group's NeverTrump playbook. His campaign is based on personal attacks against Netanyahu, whom Sa'ar insists is destroying the moral fabric of Israeli politics.
All Saar does is demonstrate what an ingrate he truly is. And what a disaster for the political scene he's bound to become, along with Lapid.

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