MK Yair Lapid, one of the leaders of the Blue and White party, on Sunday vowed not to be part of a government that included Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but did not rule out including Netanyahu’s Likud party in a “central” unity government.
Speaking to i24NEWS, Lapid reiterated his party's push for a unity government that would join the Likud and Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu party.
Asked what he would do to ensure avoiding an unprecedented third round of elections, he said, "Everything is possible but entering Netanyahu's government. We will not sit in Netanyahu's government under any circumstances" due both to his already 13-year period as Prime Minister but more conspicuously “because he has three indictments.”
“They’re not going to let Netanyahu drag them into a third election,” he said confidently of the Likud, “just because he has legal issues.”
Lapid called for Netanyahu to step down in order to pave the way for “Israeli politics, for the country to move forward.”
“The seed of the revolution is already there, they are just waiting for this election to be over,” he claimed.
Lapid also said he would refuse to govern with the Joint List due to its inclusion of the "anti-Zionist" Balad Party, whose former lawmaker Basel Ghattas was jailed for smuggling phones to terrorists in Israel prisons.
The most recent polls have suggested that Blue and White and the Likud could achieve an identical number of seats in Tuesday’s election. The polls have also suggested that both parties would have forming a coalition without the support of Yisrael Beytenu.
Liberman has ruled out joining a coalition with what he sees as radical parties and has also declared that he will not recommend for Prime Minister anyone who does not support a unity government.
He has also stood firm on his demand that the Draft Law be passed in its original wording, despite the objection of the haredim.