Responding to being fired from the cabinet, Yesh Atid party head Finance Minister Yair Lapid accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of being “disconnected” from the realities of the country and he doubts that Mr. Netanyahu will be elected prime minister again. Among his accusations, Lapid accuses the prime minister of not transferring funds to the poor, harming relations with the US, securing jobs for those close to him, not entering into a diplomatic process after Operation Protective Edge to ensure long-term quiet and stability in southern areas, promising the chareidim to get the new draft law canceled and eliminate the need for including secular studies in their schools to receive funding.

Lapid accused Mr. Netanyahu of being in a cloud and “unaware of what this [elections] does to the citizens of Israel because you live in your aquarium and you haven’t known them [the citizens] for some time”.

Lapid adds that after sitting on the cabinet and the most sensitive government forums over the past two years, “I cannot believe how cut off and disconnected you really are”. He continued and spoke of the “imaginary world” the prime minister lives in, cut off from the realities of the citizens of the nation.

Lapid added that he views the next election as his challenge as a contender to replace Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as the nation’s next leader.

In response, the prime minister stated that it is quite apparent that his failures as finance minister have Yair Lapid in a panic.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)