The Media Line: ‘Settler Terror Is Terror’: Lapid tells Foreign Press Association    

‘Settler Terror Is Terror’: Lapid tells Foreign Press Association    

By Gabriel Colodro/The Media Line    

“Settler terror is terror,” Yair Lapid said, giving a blunt answer to one of the most politically charged questions facing Israel’s opposition as it tries to build a government that can replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.   

At a press conference organized by the Foreign Press Association, Lapid spent much of the briefing on foreign policy, Iran, Gaza and the West Bank. But the most concrete political news came when he described, almost casually, how a future government led by Naftali Bennett might divide its senior posts.   

“I assume that the ideal government for most Israelis will be Naftali Bennett as prime minister, and former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot as defense minister, and former finance minister Avigdor Lieberman as finance minister, and myself as foreign minister,” Lapid said. “Again, this will be subject, I assume, to political results, but this is what we’re trying to do.”   

Lapid called the partnership “a union between the center and the liberal right” and said other political forces could still join. He also said he wanted Eisenkot to formally come in, adding that he believed “he will eventually.”   

He also tried to position the alliance as both hawkish on security and sharply opposed to the current government’s conduct, particularly on diplomatic and moral issues.   

Asked whether settler violence should be considered terrorism, Lapid answered without hesitation. “I never thought that in my lifetime we would talk about Jewish terrorism,” he said. “But this is Jewish terror.”   

He argued that extremist settler violence in the West Bank had become both a security threat and a diplomatic burden for Israel. “These people are the greatest gift anti-Semites around the world could ask for,” Lapid said. “It allows anti-Semites on both the right and the left to claim that this is Zionism and these are the values of the State of Israel. It is not.”   

Lapid also criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over the handling of activists detained from the Gaza flotilla, calling the conduct “a national disgrace” and arguing that “democracy comes with a price,” including “upholding international law.”   

Foreign policy became another central theme during the briefing when The Media Line asked Lapid what Israel’s Foreign Ministry had done correctly in recent years, and what he would do differently. “You’re asking what the Foreign Ministry has done right in the last three and a half years?” Lapid replied. “Nothing.”   

He accused the government of weakening Israel’s bipartisan standing in the United States, mishandling relations with Europe, and relying on public confrontation instead of diplomacy. “Part of foreign relations is dealing with these issues, not calling everybody an anti-Semite,” Lapid said. “There are enough anti-Semites. We don’t have to create new ones.”   

As an example, he pointed to Israel’s decision to recall its ambassador from Ireland during a diplomatic dispute, while Ireland maintained diplomatic representation in Israel. “So now if you’re an Israeli in Ireland, you have no one to talk to if you lost your passport,” Lapid said. “But if you’re an Irish man or woman in Israel who lost his passport, you have an ambassador to talk to. This doesn’t make any sense.”   

Lapid also warned that Israel’s influence in Washington had weakened significantly despite the close relationship between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. “In Washington, the Israeli government is actually at an all-time low in its ability to influence decisions in Washington,” Lapid said. “Israel is not a vassal state and we are not a protectorate.”   

Although he strongly criticized the government’s diplomacy, Lapid maintained a hard line on Iran and security policy. He defended Israel’s right to strike Iran if necessary and warned that the emerging agreement between Washington and Tehran appeared dangerous for Israel.   

“There will be no two-state solution in the coming years,” Lapid said later in the briefing, arguing that Israelis no longer believe a Palestinian state could avoid becoming “another failing terror state on our border.”   

At the same time, he signaled that a future Bennett-led government would avoid dramatic moves in the West Bank, saying there would be neither annexation nor major diplomatic initiatives toward Palestinian statehood in the near future. “We will make sure that nothing will happen that is irreversible,” Lapid said.   

Photo Credit: Gabriel Colodro/The Media Line