Opposition Chairman Yair Lapid spoke today (Tuesday) at a conference of the Berl Katznelson Foundation and the Mitvim Institute on the issue of the day after the war: "The threat to the State of Israel appeared in the intelligence reports. The Prime Minister did nothing, because he was not available for that, he was busy with other things. This is where the tragedy begins, we need a prime minister who is occupied with these things. No Israeli citizen would be willing to be protected today only by means of a technological fence."
Lapid's words: "The threat to the State of Israel appeared in the intelligence reports. The prime minister did nothing, because he was not available for that, he was busy with other things. This is where the tragedy begins, we need a prime minister who is occupied with these things. If I were the prime minister at this time - I would see and identify the threats. Bennett and I were alert, there was respect between us, and we examined the intelligence material with seriousness.
"No Israeli citizen is willing to be protected today only by a technological fence. We will need a much larger army and this has economic and social consequences. We can no longer live next to a terrorist organization and assume that everything will be fine. Between the enemy and the settlements there must be soldiers who guard them. The reserve model must grow and change.
Yair Lapid: "The situation today is being conducted without a political-strategic purpose"
Lapid continues and emphasizes that the Palestinian Authority will enter Gaza with other countries: "The situation today is being conducted without a political-strategic purpose. The day after there will not be a full ceasefire, but pauses, therefore there should be a security zone in Gaza that will allow the IDF to enter and exit freely, similar to zone B in the Judea and Samaria region. We need to start organizing the regional forces for the day after inside Gaza. In the future, we must create an arrangement that will manage the Strip, where we are responsible for security, alongside a mechanism of the moderate Arab states, the international community and the Palestinian Authority that will take care of daily life.
"The Palestinian Authority will have to undergo real changes. We will not import from the West Bank to Gaza books that call for the murder of Jews, but someone will have to clear out the trash and run the schools. The Saudis and Emiratis will not come without the PA. The two-state solution will not happen in two or three years. Israel needs to define the two-state solution as a future goal. The conflict will not end, the Palestinian national movement has never accepted us and will never accept us. They want us not to be here. The only way to prevent this is to preserve our military strength."
"The center's thesis is the right solution. We need to reach two states, it is clear that this will not end the conflict completely because there will be no agreement on the issues of Jerusalem and the right of return. Two states that have a conflict between them will live side by side. There are many countries in the world that have a conflict between them, and the preferred way of managing the conflict is inter-state. This path has gone very far, but we should not give up on it."