Labor MK and opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich on Monday morning tweeted: “The positions of Blue and White have been revealed. Even before the end of the writing of their joint platform, Yair Lapid makes clear in the recordings that we brought to Kan News – the new list will not create a blocking alliance with the Arab parties, and will turn to the Likud to form a national unity government.”
Yachimovich’s accusations dovetail with what New Right chairman Naftali Bennett said Sunday regarding Netanyahu’s plans to accept the anticipated Trump plan for a Palestinian State with eastern Jerusalem as its capital, a plan Netanyahu would promote in a national unity government with Gantz, Lapid, et al (see: Bennett: Bibi Plans Palestinian State; Bibi: Stop Firing Inside the Troops Carrier).
The “incriminating” material Labor submitted to the listeners was a recording of Yair Lapid at an election forum conducted in a private home in Karmiel in northern Israel, where Gantz’s partner stated: “There will be no blocking alliance with the Arab parties. I’ll make it simple to understand: we will not do a blocking alliance with the Arabs, period.”
“What’s really amusing is the fact that there is no such thing as a blocking alliance,” Lapid said. “It’s Bibi’s invention, so he would be able to say ‘they will make a bloc with the Arabs.'”
Except that Lapid also said, for the record, that after the elections his list would approach the Likud in order to form a national unity government.
To be fair, Lapid’s complete statement was: “We will not establish [an alliance] with the Arab parties, but we will turn to the Likud – it will be the post-Netanyahu Likud.”
Lapid said that appealing to the Likud to form a national unity government would heal the rift in Israel’s society.
Possibly. But stating it up front confirmed the worst suspicions of the left and the right about Blue and White and Likud.
“The Likud is, after all, an important national party with important people, and it has a pretty good list for the next Knesset, and we will certainly be happy to co-exist with it,” Lapid said.
So, if you were using you stopwatch app to measure how long it would take Yair Lapid to damage his new party’s chances to win, we got about five days. The amusing thing is that he kind of took Netanyahu down with him.
Although, as experienced campaign watcher know, this, too, shall pass…