Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participated today (Monday) in the Besheva newspaper's 'Summer Conference' - and attacked the policies of the Bennett-Lapid-Abbas government.
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""My life's mission is to preserve and strengthen the existence of the State of Israel. In recent weeks, I have been able to sleep well at night without waking up from the red phone. But I am worried during the day. Because the current government is treading dangerous paths for the State of Israel.
""It radiates weakness and confusion. Within 6 weeks, they have brought failures in every major area - we see this in the fight against Corona, in the fight against Iran, in the economy and in politics. We are learning again how easy it is to spoil what we have built together with great effort over years.".
He mentioned: "We have reduced the corona to almost zero. We have ordered millions more vaccines for the third vaccine, because the effectiveness of the second vaccine is decreasing. All that was needed was to order the vaccines that were prepared for us into the country. But that is not what Bennett did. There is no other way to fight the epidemic. From almost zero infections today, we have reached 2,000 infections. The government dragged its feet and wasted precious time. The media is arming the government, and talking about a 'brave' decision. What brave decision?" he asked.
""Iran is rushing to get a nuclear bomb and the current government is doing nothing. The Iranian challenge is an existential threat - and in the face of an existential threat, all means are used. But in the first week, the alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid makes a statement about a 'no surprises' policy in Iran - and with that they have tied our hands. What happened, have we become a client state? If we do not have complete independence to act against Iran, we have no independence at all. If it were not for our actions, both in the operational and political-informational fields, Iran would have long since had an arsenal of nuclear weapons against us.".
""Do you know how many administrations have demanded such a policy? I never agreed. Sometimes I announced it, sometimes I didn't. But I never agreed to such a policy. I explained - it's an existential matter for us.".
He added: "They are also failing economically. We brought them an economy in almost the best condition in the world. And what is the current government doing - after promising not to raise taxes? It is raising taxes. It is imposing taxes on Israeli citizens - raising the prices of electricity and bread, taxing online shopping from abroad, raising the prices of visits to doctors, raising the prices of public transportation, and more.".
Netanyahu emphasized: "They are doing this to finance 50 billion shekels for Mansour Abbas. If you will, 'Abbas's tax.' This is the Abbas government. Instead of raising taxes, the government should lower taxes and leave more money in the pockets of the citizens.".
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Netanyahu again denied that he had negotiated with Mansour Abbas: "We did not authorize it. I systematically said that I would not form a government that depends on Mansour Abbas. No way. They did it and they still have a safety net - the Joint List.
""I have only one request from the current government - don't destroy what we've done. Don't let it take too long to fix.".
