Ya’alon Says Telem to Run Separately in Elections

YERUSHALAYIM
MK Moshe Yaalon. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

On Friday, Moshe Ya’alon, head of the Telem Party, said he would be taking his faction out of its alliance with Yesh Atid and intends to run as a separate faction.

Ya’alon added that if former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot decides to enter the political arena, he will join Telem as his No. 2, although Eisenkot has not confirmed this.

Speaking to Channel 12, Ya’alon said that the separation will be formalized after elections are confirmed.

“We need a force that speaks to the electorate and doesn’t think this is an issue of Right or Left, but rather, a matter of ‘honest’ and ‘corrupt’ – and this is what I am aiming for ahead of the elections,” he said.

He said that in order to break the paradigm of right-wing and left-wing political blocs, “it appears that Lapid and I need to run separately.”

Ya’alon praised Lapid, however, saying he would make “an excellent prime minister” but that a different political alignment was needed if the anti-Netanyahu bloc is to garner at least 61 Knesset seats and topple the prime minister.

The former defense minister also said that Eisenkot understands “the lesson of Benny Gantz,” adding that, “if he enters [politics], it is clear that he will be with me and my party and I will lead.

“You need to acquire a certain political experience, ministerially, that I have and he does not,” Ya’alon said. “He is an excellent man, but yes – this is a different field from the military one.”

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