Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid, who chairs the Yesh Atid party, called on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to come to a debate Saturday night.
"The Israeli public deserves a debate, they deserve answers," he said. "The Israeli public deserves to know what kind of government you want to build here. The studios are ready, the moderators are ready, there are two podiums waiting. For months you've put me on your billboards, talked about me in your speeches and made videos attacking me. Let's see if you're serious. Let's see if you really want a debate or you're going to run away."
"A debate will put on the table what's really at stake in this election, the kind of government Netanyahu wants to form here. [Housing Minister Yakov] Litzman (United Torah Judaism) and [MK Bezalel] Smotrich (Religious Zionism), [Interior Minister Aryeh] Deri (Shas) and [Itamar] Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) - a racist, extortionist, misogynistic government which will drive a whole generation away and bury Israel's democracy.
"Israel will be far more religious, far poorer and far less democratic. It will no longer be the country of working people, those who serve in the army, those who pay taxes. They'll have a government that hates them and everything they believe in," he prophesied.
"Come to a debate Bibi," he said, using the Prime Minister's nickname. "I'm not going to sit in the studios as your warm-up act. You said I'm your opponent, come to a debate. You asked 'Where's Lapid?' Here I am."