(16 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel – 16 June 2025
1. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid in office
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Yair Lapid, Israeli opposition leader:
“I support it completely. I think we had no choice. It’s not like we declared war in Iran. Iran has declared war in Israel years ago, did everything in its power to make sure they have a nuclear weapon. And the reason they want a nuclear weapon is in order to use it against Israel. So we acted upon an existential threat.”
3. Cutaway of Lapid
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Yair Lapid, Israeli opposition leader:
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a bitter rival, political rival. We’ve been sparring politically for more than a decade. I think he’s the wrong person to lead the country. But on that he was right. Israel had to go on this operation in Iran, because the threat was existential, because they wanted to have more ballistic missiles than we have interceptors, because the nuclear program was approaching the point of no return. And therefore, we had no choice. So we didn’t rally behind the government. We rallied behind the necessity to operate on the moment that was inevitable. “
5. More of Lapid
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Yair Lapid, Israeli opposition leader:
“Right now, it’s not the right moment to do politics. I mean, yes, this government needs to be toppled, but not in the midst of an existential fight, for our life. “
7. More of Lapid
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Yair Lapid, Israeli opposition leader:
“I don’t care what are the motivations. It’s the right thing to do, is to go to Iran now and be engaged in this war, that because we are protecting ourselves and, you know, we’re protecting the lives of our children and so whether or not I trust in him is irrelevant to the fact that it was the right decision to go into this war.”
9. Lapid leaving room
STORYLINE:
Roughly 24 hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a blistering assault on Iran, Israel’s opposition was scheming to bring down his government.
Now, just days into the ongoing operation against Iran, the opposition has closed ranks behind the effort, suspending months of bitter criticism against Netanyahu and his handling of the war in Gaza.
It’s a sharp about-face for a constellation of parties that have criticized Netanyahu throughout the war for what they have charged is his politically motivated decision-making.
“It’s not the right moment to do politics,” opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid told The Associated Press on Monday in his first international media interview since the start of the operation against Iran.
The latest conflict began when Israel launched an assault on Iran’s top military leaders, uranium enrichment sites and nuclear scientists that it said was necessary to prevent its longtime adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon — which Israel says would pose an existential threat.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Lapid spoke just days after he called from the dais of the Israeli parliament for an election to oust Netanyahu.
“Yes, this government needs to be toppled, but not in the midst of an existential fight,” Lapid said.
And that fight has become personal.
His son’s home was damaged in an Iranian strike, although no one was there at the time except for house pets.
Israeli politicians across the spectrum typically fall in line behind government actions during times of war or crisis.
And then a war against the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and now a major escalation with Iran.
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