Yair Lapid, one of the leaders of Israel’s opposition in the Knesset, on Monday urged the international media to acknowledge the two sides involved in the Hamas-orchestrated “March of Return” at the Gaza-Israeli border – the terrorist group Hamas, which “wanted as many casualties as possible,” and Israel, which “had interest in zero casualties.”
“They have to remember which is which,” Lapid insisted during an exclusive press briefing hosted by The Israel Project in Washington, D.C. “Israel has no interest in shooting civilians, let alone children.”
Lapid, the leader of the centrist party, Yesh Atid, blamed Hamas, which has complete political and military control over the Gaza Strip, for the dire humanitarian situation in the coastal enclave.
“The number of trucks with supplies coming from Israeli went down from 950 to 450 a day – not because we have limited the number, but because the buying power of the people of Gaza has lowered down significantly.” Lapid said. Hamas, he insisted, is solely to blame for the humanitarian crisis.
Lapid’s visit to the United States comes as President Donald Trump’s special envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy for Middle East peace, Jason Greenblatt, returned from the region where they held meetings with leaders from Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to advance a new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Lapid said he had “no details” of the peace plan that is in the works, but observed that with the decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Trump administration had “rocked the boat.”
“Someone need to do something different,” he said, reflecting on the dozens of failed peace talks with the Palestinians, of which he was also a part.
“I think they want, from what I gather, is for the Sunni states to be part of this pressuring the Palestinians that they cannot just decline the opportunity,” Lapid said of the new peace initiative. The Palestinians don’t understand “it’s not a zero-sum game. Either you give me what I want – the right of return, the entire territory, refugees, settlements, Jerusalem – or I am not even willing to play game.”
Lapid specifically castigated Abbas for what he described as his intransigence, suggesting the leader of the Palestinian Authority was no serious partner in peace. “There’s a myth that says Abu Mazen is the last of the Tunis generation and therefore the last of the generation who can make peace,” Lapid said. “I completely disagree. I think he’s the last of the generation who is totally incapable of signing anything. For them, it’s betraying the Palestinian ethos.”
Lapid’s criticism of Abbas echoed criticism of the Palestinian leader made by Kushner in a recent interview. Kushner told a Palestinian newspaper over the weekend, that he doubted that Abbas “has the ability to, or is willing to, lean into finishing a deal” with Israel.
According to Lapid, failure to negotiate a peace agreement with the Palestinians goes “back to the basic question whether or not the Palestinians are ready for the necessary responsibility of nation building, which I am not sure they are.”
He also said he was skeptical the current Palestinian leadership was ready to accept a Jewish presence in the land of Israel, but acknowledged “there is a generation of Palestinian leaders who are more practical, more pragmatic.” Those Palestinians, he said, included PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, Jibril Rajoub, and Mohammed Dahlan.
Lapid concluded that the regional dynamics are changing and the Palestinians are increasingly under pressure from the Arab States to negotiate a settlement with Israel. “There is a change within the Gulf States,” Lapid charged. “The Israel-Palestinian issue was the ultimate scape goat – not anymore (…) now they want to take it off the table. They want everyone to focus on Iran.”
[Photo: The Israel Project ]