Prime Minister Yair Lapid formally invited opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday to a routine security briefing as the two continued to spar over the issue.
“In accordance with the Knesset Law, I would like to invite you as soon as possible to a meeting to update the status of the national issues on the agenda,” Lapid wrote in a July 3 letter to Netanyahu.
The letter came two days after Lapid invited Netanyahu to a security briefing alongside the prime minister’s military secretary, Avi Gil, during a phone call with the opposition leader.
Lapid’s spokesman said on Friday that the prime minister had invited Netanyahu “to come, as is customary, for a security briefing in [Lapid’s] office with the Secretary of War. But according to Netanyahu’s spokesman, the opposition leader responded that he wanted to receive the legally authorized security updates from Lapid’s military secretary, but without Lapid present “to prevent the security briefing from becoming a political tool before the election.”
Netanyahu’s apparent concern is not to be seen and possibly photographed until he is briefed by the prime minister, whom he wants to defeat in the Nov. 1 election, Israel’s fifth national election since 2019 after the collapse of the eight-party coalition led by the leader of Yamina Naftali Bennett.
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Bennett now serves as alternate prime minister, a role previously held by Lapid as part of their power-sharing arrangement.
While the opposition leader is required by law to receive security updates from the prime minister, Netanyahu has refused to comply with the procedure over the past year as he has regularly challenged Bennett’s legitimacy as prime minister.
Instead, he receives the updates from Bennett’s Secretary of War, also Avi Gill, managing to avoid being photographed while being briefed by his political rival.
Netanyahu’s conversation with Lapid on Friday was the first publicly disclosed conversation between the two since the latter took over as prime minister hours earlier, tasked with leading the country through elections and until a new government is formed.
A spokesman for the Likud leader said Netanyahu told Lapid he wished him “four months of security silence” ahead of the Nov. 1 election. Netanyahu, who was prime minister from 2009 to 2021, is trying to return to power after a year at the helm of the opposition.
Lapid officially became prime minister at midnight between Thursday and Friday, taking office as the 14th prime minister in Israel’s history.
Lapid’s statements after the call described Netanyahu’s call as congratulatory, although no such language was used, according to his rival.
Netanyahu’s statement also referred to Lapid as “interim prime minister,” while Lapid was referred to simply as “prime minister” in his cabinet’s testimony.
In Lapid’s first speech as prime minister on Saturday night, he thanked his predecessor Bennett for the “orderly transition of power” and praised his leadership over the past 12 months.
“I want to start by thanking the 13th Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Naftali Bennett. For your decency, for your friendship and for leading the government this past year to economic and security achievements not seen here in years,” he said, adding “special thanks for allowing the citizens of Israel to see this week an orderly transition between people who keep agreements and believe in each other.”
It was a blow to Netanyahu, who broke the 2020 power-rotation agreement with Defense Minister Benny Gantz and who last year held only a brief, 30-minute transition meeting with incoming prime minister Bennett.
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