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Likud: ‘Bennett, Lapid turning Israel into Iran, N. Korea’

The tweets are likely referring to proposed change bloc legislation, recently leaked to Hebrew language media, which appears to be aimed at barring Netanyahu from serving in the Knesset.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party posted a series of tweets in English on Monday evening, accusing prime minister-designate Naftali Bennett and potential alternate prime minister Yair Lapid of proposing “laws from Iran.”

“@Naftalibennett and @yairlapid are turning Israel into a dark dictatorship with personal laws aimed at Prime Minister Netanyahu akin to the dictates of North Korea or Iran,” read the tweet.

“After Bennett deceived his own electorate by transferring votes from right to left only to appoint himself prime minister with 6 mandates, he is now proposing laws that don’t exist in any democracy in the world, with the aim of disqualifying PM Netanyahu from running for Knesset and thus taking down the right-wing leader.

“Bennett crosses every red line in his mad quest for the prime minister’s seat at any cost. PM Netanyahu fights Iran while Bennett and Lapid propose laws from Iran.”

The tweets are likely referring to proposed change bloc legislation, recently leaked to Hebrew language media, which appears to be aimed at barring Netanyahu from serving in the Knesset.

Among the laws that will reportedly be pushed by the change bloc include bills that would prevent a two-term prime minister from running for the Knesset for a four-year “cooling off” period, and ban prime ministers from serving for more than eight years.

Netanyahu is the only living prime minister to whom such a law would apply.

The Yemina party strongly denied that they had agreed to any bill that specifically targets Netanyahu.

“There is not and will not be any agreement on the matter of preventing running for the Knesset,” Yemina said in a statement.

“This is a proposal that was made, wasn’t agreed on, and won’t happen. The only thing that was agreed on is capping a prime minister’s tenure at eight years or two terms.”

MK Karin Elharrar (Yesh Atid) told Israel’s Radio 103FM that the change bloc was not planning on introducing policies that specifically bar Netanyahu from politics.

“I must admit I haven’t seen this specific law. It came up in a media report,” she said.

But Elharrar added that she did not believe that Netanyahu, who is currently on trial for fraud and breach of trust, should have been allowed to serve as prime minister while facing criminal charges.

“In my view, a person facing criminal charges cannot serve as prime minister,” she said.