David Isaac
JNS, July 3, 2022
“When people ask them [Israelis] ‘What do you care about,’ they will say [cost-of-living]. But is it true? I’m not sure.”
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s first address to the nation as prime minister might have been brief, but the list of challenges facing the Jewish State that he presented was long. Analysts tell JNS that Lapid won’t be able to address all of those challenges in the four months before Israeli elections on Nov. 1, and he’ll mainly be electioneering.
Lapid himself narrowed the list at his first weekly cabinet meeting as prime minister on Sunday. On the foreign policy front, he said, “The Iranians, Hamas and Hezbollah will not wait.” Domestically, he said, “The education crisis cannot wait. Budgets for hospitals cannot be postponed.”
Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, CEO and founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF)—also known as the Bitchonistim—an Israeli NGO made up of thousands of former security officers, said that defense issues are the most critical, and that unexpected events frequently occur, like the drones Hezbollah sent toward an Israeli gas rig on Saturday.
“The prime minister of Israel is involved, and needs to be involved, on an everyday basis. There’s almost constant decision-making,” Avivi said of security issues.
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