Israel’s Lapid Says Ethnic Unrest A Huge Threat

JERUSALEM — Israel’s opposition leader says the country faces an “existential threat” from ongoing violent unrest between Jewish and Arab mobs.

Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid on Thursday said that if the ethnic fighting doesn’t stop, “the state is in danger.”

He vowed to build an alternative governing coalition and end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year rule. Netanyahu also has condemned the communal violence.

Lapid spoke amid ongoing airstrikes and rocket attacks from Gaza.

Earlier Thursday, an Arab man allegedly shot and seriously wounded a Jewish man in the latest incident of ethnic fighting inside Israel.

In Jaffa, an Israeli soldier was attacked by a group of Arabs and was hospitalized in serious condition. In south Tel Aviv, two Jewish men attacked a journalist covering a gathering of ultranationalists.

Police said officers had arrested at least eight suspects in the northern city of Haifa who were involved in stone-throwing and other violent unrest.

Lapid said in his televised address, “We are on the brink of the abyss.”