Tehran, IRNA – Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, in a speech on Sunday night acknowledged that the regime has not enough military forces to defend itself.

Lapid, an outspoken Israeli politician of the centrist Yesh Atid party, sarcastically said that there is no one left except the Haredim movement to get new recruits, according to the Palestinian SAMA news agency. 

He was probably referring to a recent warning by Yitzhak Yosef, the Chief Jewish Rabbi, also called Sephardic or Haredi Rabbi of ultra-orthodox Jews that there will be mass exodus of his community if they were forced to join the army.

Yoav Gallant, the Minister of War, in a press conference earlier, demanded a new law that could cancel the military exemptions for ultra-orthodox Jews, including Haredim, an issue that raised concerns about the collapse of the ruling coalition.

Earlier, the head of the opposition also criticized the policy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toward Gaza, saying he has not learnt a lesson from his defeat in Gaza and cannot remain at the top of the power.

"In times of war, Netanyahu destroys Israel and endangers the alliance with Washington”, the Zionist newspaper Haaretz wrote recently in a report that also expressed concern over the continuation of the current cabinet under Netanyahu as well as the continuation of war.

Netanyahu is trying to use the war to fulfill his election goals amid his declining popularity as “Israelis are tired of him”, Haaretz added.

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