
The Yesh Atid party, headed by MK Yair Lapid, head of the opposition, has announced that it is resuming negotiations toward the forming of a coalition. Lapid has another 10 days to form a government until his mandate ends.
Lapid’s negotiating team intends to resume talks on Monday morning in Kfar Maccabia, and will publish all new developments as they occur.
“We have another 10 days, and I intend to use each day to its fullest,” Lapid said on Sunday. “The last few days have shown us more than ever how much we need a unified, functioning government. Tomorrow we will be resuming talks between the various negotiating teams, and we will turn over every stone and do everything we can in order to establish a unity government that will get straight to work for all Israeli citizens.”
For the moment, Lapid does not intend to resume negotiations with Naftali Bennett, head of the Yamina party, due to Bennett’s stated preference for establishing a right-wing government together with the Likud and New Hope parties. All the same, earlier on Sunday, Bennett issued a statement blaming Prime Minister Netanyahu for “creating a personality cult surrounding his leadership, whereby anyone who dares to criticize him is harshly attacked.”
Responding to Bennett’s words, the Likud party issued a statement of its own: “There are politicians who talk right-wing talk but act with left-wing actions. Even as they write seemingly right-wing posts, they continue to veer to the left. Even after the murderous attacks by Hamas, the violent riots within Israel, and renewed demands being heard for the establishment of a Palestinian state that will simply be one huge Hamastan, they continue to act toward establishing a government that will depend on the support of the Joint List and the left-wing Lapid, Meretz, and Labor.
“The time has come for [Yamina] to make it totally clear that they will not join such a government, and that they will [instead] join a right-wing government headed by Netanyahu.”
The statement added that, “Prime Minister Netanyahu led Israel out of the coronavirus crisis, making it the first country in the world to emerge from the epidemic. He led a determined effort against Hamas, dealing it severe blows that took it back a decade, garnered broad international support that enabled the IDF to complete the task it had set itself, and brought to a halt the riots across the country by deploying Border Police units and also the ISA. This is the difference between a leader who acts with determination and responsibility and sees great success on a national and international level, and politicians who do nothing but write tweets.”