Lapid Admits: We Intend to Establish a Gov’t With Support of the Joint List

MK Yair Lapid, one of the Blue and White Party leaders, admitted in a social media post on Tuesday morning that his party intends to establish a narrow minority government with the support of the Arab Joint List.

With this, he has walked back from assurances and commitments given to the public time and again during the election campaign. Lapid wrote “I admit that this is not the government that we wanted. But it is far superior to the current paralysis. Such a government could make a budget, the government ministries would go back to work … and we can avoid mass layoffs in the economy.”

In his post, Lapid insists that his preferred option still is a unity government: “This is what we always wanted, and is what we would do today, with [Benny] Gantz to serve first as prime minister, as [Binyamin] Netanyahu is facing a court case.”

He claims that Netanyahu doesn’t want a unity government, which is why he’s pushing for a fourth round of elections, to try to form a coalition that will save him from prison. So, what’s left? Just two options, one hard, the second a disaster. They are either to establish a narrow government with Yisrael Beytenu and Labor, leaving the door open for a unity government [with the Likud].”

Lapid claims that “contrary to all the lies Bibi is spreading, the Joint List will not be part of this government. They will vote once on the outside [of the government], and that will be an end of it. Bibi has cooperated with them in a similar way thousands of times. Or, we can go to a fourth round of elections, like Bibi wants … more elections, more hatred … What’s best for the State of Israel?”

Political analysts noted that while Lapid’s claims that the Joint List needs to only vote once in order to help form a government is true, this will not help to not bring new elections, as not passing a budget will bring the elections, with or without a government being formed.