Ex-minister blasts Netanyahu's 'political corruption' in expanding cabinet

Yair Lapid, the head of the Israeli Yesh Atid party, blasted Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to expand the government to 20 ministers, up from 18 ministers that served in the previous administration, Jerusalem Post newspaper reported on Saturday.

Appearing at a town hall meeting in Tel Aviv on Saturday, the former finance minister, whose dismissal by Netanyahu triggered the downfall of the previous government and early elections, said that the premier’s plans to change the law - one of Yesh Atid’s signature achievements - amounted to “political corruption.”

“He is doing this while cheating the public,” Lapid said. “The government said that there is no budgetary consequence for Sunday’s decision on expanding the government. I was finance minister. I know how much this costs. This isn’t just a few million shekels like they are trying to spin to the public. This is hundreds of millions of shekels.”

The secularist-centrist Yesh Atid announced on Friday that it will ask the High Court to block Netanyahu’s plan to expand the number of government ministers in his new cabinet.