Former Prime Minister and current Leader of the Opposition, Yair Lapid, recently addressed the approval of reducing the clause of reasonability and said it was a "sad day."
In a lengthy statement to the media, Yair Lapid wrote: "This is a day of destruction of the temple. A day of baseless hatred. I look at the coalition celebrating and ask, what are you celebrating? That you are dismantling our Jewish state? That people who served together in the military for thirty years are canceling their annual gathering because they know it will end badly?"
Lapid criticized the government and said, "This extremist government is hugging and posing to celebrate the moment when they turned us into no longer brothers. They celebrate the moment when they successfully threw away everything that connects us into the garbage of history. Today, we witnessed a display of weakness from Netanyahu, like never before. There is no prime minister in Israel. Netanyahu has become a puppet on the string of messianic extremists."
The former Prime Minister recounted: "This week, I met a young doctor working in the pediatric ward, she has four children of her own. She spoke to me with pain about no longer feeling certain about her future here. Congratulations to the coalition - you defeated her. In a democracy, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you win. We all accept that. But what happened here today is not within the framework of democracy. It's something else. It's an absolute breakdown of the rules of the game."
Lapid added and said: "The rules are clear - rather they were clear for seventy-five years - the government and the coalition are allowed to decide the direction in which the country is heading, but they cannot cancel the character of the state. They cannot decide that Israel is no longer a democracy, not with a majority of 64, not with a majority of 80, and not even with a majority of 119. That is the implication of the law that passed today. The cancellation of checks and balances, the cancellation of the separation of powers, the cancellation of gatekeepers, the cancellation of the entire immune system of Israeli democracy."
The Leader of the Opposition emphasized, "This is not a victory for the coalition - it is the defeat of Israeli democracy. We will not give up. We will not surrender. We will not allow them to turn Israel into a flawed, undemocratic state governed by hatred and extremism. They will not decide when our struggle ends; we will decide. They will not unilaterally determine the future of our children. They are ours, and we will decide. They will not unilaterally determine the future of the State of Israel. That decision will be made together - in the next government. In an Israeli government that leaves the extremist minority outside. This government may win the battle, but it will not win the war."
Lapid made it clear: "Israel will not become Hungary or Poland. It will not happen. Tomorrow morning, we will appeal to the Supreme Court against this misguided legislation, against the unilateral annulment of the democratic character of the State of Israel, and against the anti-democratic and bulldozing process in which the discussions were conducted in the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee. There is no twisted, violent, abnormal, and unprecedented procedure like the grotesque circus Rotman conducted in the committee. That's not how you hold a discussion on changing a fundamental law that concerns the very essence of our system. In fact, in a proper world, they wouldn't even allow such a discussion on sausages in the subcommittee on sausage affairs of the Health Committee."
To the leaders of the protest, Lapid said, "I call upon the heroes of the protest. Do not believe the fake celebrations. Believe in yourselves. Believe in your clear and strong voice. Believe that the future belongs to those who do not ever give up."
Lapid also addressed the reservists: "I call upon the reservists, the fighters, and the pilots whose hearts were broken today. I was the Prime Minister. I know your abilities, your dedication, your commitment to the State of Israel and its security. Wait, let the Supreme Court deliberate on the law, and only then make the difficult decision. Don't stop serving, don't harm the readiness of the IDF, as long as we don't know what the decision will be."
In conclusion, Lapid said, "We do not raise our hands and we do not give up. This will determine the fate of our broken-hearted country. This is the greatest and most dangerous national crisis we have faced. It did not happen because of our enemies, but because of an extremist government that cares not about the economy, not about mortgages, not about relationships with the world, and not about the divide in the people of Israel. There is no citizen who will not feel the economic damage of this day. There is no Israeli whose livelihood will not be affected. This crisis threatens to break us because there is an extremist government here that wants to claim victory, even if the price is that we all lose. They did not win because the struggle is not over. It has only just begun."
