MK Zvi Hauser (Derech Eretz) said on Sunday night that the Telem party of which he was previously a member would not have joined the "Blue and White" alliance had it known that the partnership would also include Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party.
"Yesh Atid is a left-wing party," Hauser said during a discussion in the Knesset, "Had we known the alliance was with Yesh Atid, we would not have joined, it contradicts our worldview.”
The Telem party was founded by former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in January of 2019, and later agreed to run on a joint ticket with Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience party.
Before the April 2019 election, Gantz and Lapid agreed to run together on a joint ticket, leading to the founding of the Blue and White alliance.
Last month, however, Telem and Yesh Atid broke off from Blue and White in protest against Gantz's decision to join a coalition headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It was subsequently decided that Yesh Atid and Telem will remain united under the Yesh Atid banner, while Gantz’s party will keep the Blue and White name.
The twists did not end there, however, as Hauser and fellow Telem MK Yoaz Hendel decided to split from Telem and form their own party, Derech Eretz, due to their support for Gantz’s move to join Netanyahu’s cabinet.