Former Finance Minister Yair Lapid slammed the 19th Knesset Tuesday, saying in comments about the Yisrael Beytenu corruption case that MKs were fighting internal corruption “every day” in the government over the past two years.
“These two years we had to fight every day against corruption, a culture of cronyism and ‘jobs,’ and the abuse of political power for big money,” Lapid said at an event for the Movement for Quality Government at Sapir College in Sderot.
“We were the only party that completely abstained from political appointments,” he added.
Lapid praised the party and said that Yesh Atid is the only party in which that none of its ministers and MKs have been subjected to an investigation.
“What matters is not your job, what happens to you in the primaries, what would be the next coalition. What matters is what happens in the country [once you’re there],” Lapid added.
Despite the criticism, Lapid avoided direct reference to the affair over which Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirschenbaum and other Yisrael Beytenu officials were arrested.
“For years there was foul play here, which could be because of interest groups and minorities – settlers, hareidim, Likud activists, foreign contractors – all of them get priority in the distribution of resources within Israeli society,” he went on to say.
The remarks are considerably more cynical than a separate interview Lapid gave Channel 2 soon after news of the arrests broke, whereby he indicated that he does not believe in a “guilty until proven innocent” approach.
We only learned of the investigation today,” Lapid said diplomatically. “I hope everyone is acquitted and it becomes clear that none of the allegations are true.”
“At the same time, I am proud that we live in a country where no one is immune from investigation and that corruption cases are treated with impartiality,” Lapid continued. “We have to wait and see. I don’t like the Israeli mentality that straight away, the accused is a condemned man. Let’s wait and see what comes of it.”
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