Minister for Social Equality Meirav Cohen (Yesh Atid) has spoken out in defense of her party leader, Prime Minister Yair Lapid, after he, like his predecessor, came under fire for not moving to the premier's official residence in Jerusalem. According to a recent report on Kan Reshet Bet, Lapid has only spent a few nights in Jerusalem since taking office, preferring to remain in his Tel Aviv home in the upscale Ramat Aviv neighborhood.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was excoriated for failing to move to the Jerusalem residence, primarily due to the fact that the renovations to his family home in Ra'anana cost Israeli taxpayers millions of shekels, in order to satisfy security demands. Lapid promised, when taking office, that he would move to Jerusalem and avoid such a situation arising.
"Lapid has been Prime Minister for just a month," Cohen told Reshet Bet on Sunday. "Are people really already counting how many days he's either here or there? Lapid made a promise, and he's going to keep that promise. They [Lapid and his wife Lihi] are definitely planning to make the official residence in Jerusalem their primary residence."
Cohen was also asked to comment on her fellow party member's apparent reluctance to answer the question of whether Yesh Atid would be willing to form a government that relies on the predominantly Arab Joint List party for a majority in the Knesset. MK Elazar Stern was recently asked to commit himself one way or another by a news reporter from Reshet Bet, and avoided responding directly.
Cohen, on the other hand, did not shy away from providing an answer. "We will not sit in a coalition with the Joint List," she said. "What we will do is coordinate various votes with them, as all governments do. The opposition parties did exactly that when they coordinated their moves with the Joint List in order to topple the government, in the votes on the Judea and Samaria regulations and the Citizenship Law."
According to senior coalition officials, Lapid prefers to work whole days in his office in the Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv, and given that the number of meetings he holds there has increased significantly, in practice he is spending virtually all of his time there.
As for Stern, he tidily avoided committing himself when asked by veteran journalist Kalman Libeskind whether his party would form a government with the Joint List, saying only that, "Anyone who wants to support us is welcome to do so."
Pressed to give a clear answer as to whether the Joint List would be allowed to provide the missing votes needed to gain a Knesset majority, thereby granting it inordinate leverage in any future government, Stern again dodged the question, saying only that, "Anyone who wants to support us in accordance with our fundamental principles can do so."