Prime Minister Yair Lapid and opposition head Benjamin Netanyahu will meet at the former's Jerusalem office at 5pm Monday for a briefing on the emerging Iran nuclear deal.
This will be the second security briefing between the two since Lapid took office at the beginning of July.
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Prime Minister Yair Lapid and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: AP, Alex Kolomoisky)
Netanyahu and Lapid last met earlier this month at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv amid the recent flare-up with Gaza Strip terrorist factions.
The two have long harbored resentment of one another with Lapid launching frequent attacks during his time as leader of the opposition against Netanyahu and his government.
Last year, Lapid, with the help of Alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, managed to unseat Netanyahu after a record 12 years in power, having masterminded a fragile governing alliance that consists of nationalist, centrist, left-wing and Arab parties and is held by little more than shared disdain for the conservative leader.
Lapid ultimately took over from Bennett as interim prime minister after the collapse of the government.
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Netanyahu and Lapid meet for a security briefing during recent fighting in Gaza
(Photo: GPO)
Ahead of their Monday meeting, Netanyahu issued a statement in which he attacked Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz on what he deemed their lax handling of the Iranian issue.
"Over the past year, Lapid and Gantz have completely abandoned the public campaign against the Iran nuclear deal. For 12 years, we have fought this agreement resolutely and even got the United State to walk back on it," he said.
"In their single year in power, Lapid and Gantz fell asleep on the watch and allowed the U.S. and Iran to reach a nuclear agreement that jeopardizes our future. They've simply done nothing to press the American administration to not sign this agreement."
"Unlike us, they did not go to Congress, the UN and they didn't run a strong campaign in global media. After the U.S. had already concluded the main points of the agreement with Iran, only then did Lapid and Gantz remember to wake up. Too late, too little. Lapid and Gantz' incompetence will be remembered in history as the Iranian nuclear fiasco.
There is no better example of this incompetence, than the fact that Bennett, the 'minister of Iranian affairs' appointed by Lapid, is vacationing in Italy on the eve of the signing of the agreement, and in an area without reception. That's not how you fight an existential threat. That's not how you protect Israel."
Lapid issued a response shortly after in which he slammed his predecessor's conduct on the Iranian issue as more show than actions
"When Netanyahu was prime minister, everything he did on the Iranian issue was press conferences and presentations. The damage he caused during his tenure to Israel's two most important strategic issues — the fight against the Iran nuclear weapon and relations with the U.S. — is serious and deep and we are still repairing it," Lapid said.
"We work every day to strengthen Israel's policy and security capabilities, which have been neglected for many years. That is why I summoned the head of the opposition tomorrow for a security briefing to get updated on the details so that at least he will have an idea of what he is talking about with all the raucous he makes."