‘Disturbing and irresponsible’: Lapid enlisting US Jewish groups to sabotage Netanyahu – report

Outgoing premier Yair Lapid is reportedly enlisting the help of liberal U.S. Jewish groups to torpedo right-wing legislation, sabotage Netanyahu’s new government.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid is planning to travel to the U.S. to enlist the help of Diaspora Jewish organizations to hamstring the new right-wing government, Hebrew language media outlets reported on Thursday.

Lapid, who has close ties to Democratic party veterans including former Rep. Ted Deutch, is reportedly gearing up to mobilize liberal Jewish groups to torpedo reforms to the judicial system and possible annexation of Judea and Samaria, which have been stated as priorities for the new government.

The outgoing premier has made a number of dramatic public statements about the new government, including apologizing to Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, while speaking at a commemoration for the late statesman.

During a blistering speech in late November at Ben-Gurion’s grave, Lapid charged that the incoming government would destroy the founding principles on which the state of Israel was built.

Lapid has made similar statements to international media outlets, claiming that Netanyahu is planning to destroy Israel’s constitutional basis and that Israeli democracy is teetering on the brink of being lost forever.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli slammed Lapid on Thursday while speaking at a World Beitar Conference in Jerusalem, saying the former premier’s actions are “disturbing and irresponsible.”

Chikli said that the former premier’s comments about Netanyahu’s right-wing government besmirched Israel’s international reputation and that his behavior was strengthening the anti-Israel (BDS Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement.

Lapid “doesn’t understand that when he tells the whole world that Israel has a dark government, the world doesn’t differentiate between the government and the state. No former prime minister has ever acted this way,” Chikli was quoted as saying in a Jerusalem Post report.

Chikli is now a member of the Likud party, but in 2021 he was the sole member of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party who voted against the formation of the “change government” due to its partnership with the Islamist United Arab List (Ra’am).