Lapid threatening to leave Netanyahu's coalition

Zionist Regime's Yesh Atid will leave Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition if negotiations between the regime and the Palestinians end and there is no diplomatic process taking place, party leader Yair Lapid said in closed conversations Tuesday.

Officials in Yesh Atid confirmed a Channel 10 report that past commitments Lapid made, in which he said he would remove his party from the coalition if there were no peace talks, applied to the situation that could arise in the coming days.

The officials said the threat to leave was serious but not immediate. “It is not as if we will leave the day after talks break down,” a Yesh Atid official said.
Netanyahu’s coalition is facing threats from both Yesh Atid and Hatnua on the Left if negotiations with the Palestinians end, and from Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett if Palestinian captives are released in a deal to extend the talks.
But Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman downplayed Bennett’s threats Tuesday at a press briefing with his Austrian counterpart, Sebastian Kurz.
“There is no chance Bayit Yehudi will quit the coalition,” Liberman said. “Don’t take Bennett’s threats too seriously.”