Amid Yair Lapid’s criticism over the premier’s handling of security as the country faces escalating tensions with Iran and Hezbollah, the opposition leader’s spokesperson confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that no security meeting between the two leaders had been held since April. Under Knesset law, the prime minister is required to update the opposition leader on state matters “as necessary, and no less than once a month.”
Lapid sharply criticized the emerging US deal with Iran and on Sunday said that, if the reports of the deal were correct, it “would be one of the most shocking failures of Israeli foreign and security policy, and it would be entirely on Netanyahu’s account.”
“No press conference and no media spin or AI-generated video will conceal the failure,” Lapid said.
No productive strategy behind Israel’s attacks on Iran
He has said that there was no productive strategy behind Israel’s attacks on Iran, arguing that the country was failing to achieve its military objectives while continuing to draw its citizens into repeated rounds of conflict.
Lapid outlined various points on Sunday that he said were related to Netanyahu’s failures.
He said that Netanyahu “sold the Americans an overly optimistic scenario without fully presenting the risks involved, and lost their trust in the middle of the war.”
Lapid added that Netanyahu “failed to establish a professional team to work with the various power centers and decision-makers within the American administration,” and “failed to persuade the Americans to strike Iran’s oil and energy facilities and did not secure the issue in advance.”
The prime minister also failed to convince the Americans to include Iran’s ballistic missile program in the agreement, or even in the negotiations, Lapid said.
He added that Netanyahu had “underestimated the importance of freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.” Although “the possibility that the Strait could be closed was raised before the war,” Lapid said, “no serious discussion was held on the matter.”
He further argued that Netanyahu “failed to consider the implications of rising oil prices in the United States just months before congressional elections,” as well as the consequences of lifting sanctions and “injecting tens of billions of dollars into the Iranian economy under the supervision of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
Additionally, Lapid blamed Netanyahu for failing to account for the possibility of attacks on Gulf states’ energy facilities and did not successfully leverage Israel’s ties with Gulf countries to bring them into a joint campaign.
‘We changed the Middle East.’
“He [Netanyahu] continues to tell everyone: ‘We changed the Middle East.’ The problem is that due to negligence, arrogance, the absence of an appropriate professional team, and judgment influenced by other considerations, he changed it for the worse,” Lapid said.
“The emerging agreement does not achieve any of Israel’s war objectives. The regime survives, the missile program remains intact, and Iran is able to rebuild its nuclear program,” he added.
“This is a complete failure by Netanyahu, and on the way, he is turning us into a client state that receives instructions regarding its own national security,” he added.
With upcoming elections currently scheduled for October, Lapid has vowed that the next government would have a “historic role: to repair the damage caused by Netanyahu’s inability to turn military achievements into strategic successes.”