Labor’s Golan calls on opposition to coordinate and establish ‘shadow government’
Opposition Leader Lapid denies Shas is pushing Netanyahu to bring opposition parties into the coalition to dilute Ben Gvir’s influence
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Addressing reporters during his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset on Monday morning, Yair Golan, the chairman of The Democrats, a merger of Labor and Meretz, called on leaders of the opposition to come together for “immediate” coordinated activity on a variety of fronts.
“This morning I sent a personal letter to each of the leaders of the opposition. I detailed in my letter the increasing necessity of coordinated and joint actions,” Golan said, listing five “burning issues” requiring the participation of all opposition parties.
Those are the return of the hostages and the establishment of a Knesset committee to oversee ceasefire negotiations; obtaining an updated report on the IDF’s ability to face the “all-encompassing regional conflict into which Netanyahu is leading” the country; presenting an alternative budget to that being advanced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich; the establishment of a “shadow government” in the British manner; and working to push for a state commission of inquiry into October 7.
It was the second such missive Golan has sent in recent weeks calling for coordinated opposition action. In his last letter, he called for a meeting of opposition party chairmen to discuss ways to topple the government.
Asked about the letter during his Yesh Atid party’s faction meeting, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that he welcomed the initiative and called “for collaboration with all opposition factions.”
“We are working on this, in ways that are known and in ways that are less known,” he said, calling it “the right approach.”
Asked about media reports that the ultra-Orthodox Shas party is pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring opposition parties into the coalition to dilute the influence of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Lapid told reporters that he had not received any call from Shas chief Aryeh Deri.
If Deri were serious, “he would have picked up the phone,” Lapid said, less than a month after he was reported to have met with the Shas chief to discuss steps to combat Ben Gvir’s push for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.
Shas and Ben Gvir have been at loggerheads in recent months, with the far right minister’s Otzma Yehudit party repeatedly blocking Shas legislation in a bid to force Netanyahu to grant him greater influence over the course of the war in Gaza.
Asked if he would consider entering the government, Lapid recalled offering to enter the government in place of Netanyahu’s far-right allies following October 7, and reiterated his previous proposal to provide a “safety net” to the government by replacing Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich if they leave the government in order to prevent a hostage deal.
Lapid has often offered to provide Netanyahu with a political lifeline, in order to advance a potential hostage deal, despite the opposition of the premier’s far-right allies.
Golan, for his part, insisted that such a move would be counterproductive.
“We must not give Netanyahu a safety net,” he said.
Despite his offer, Lapid did not let up on his criticism of Netanyahu’s government on Monday, accusing Justice Minister Yariv Levin of seeking “to abolish Israeli democracy,” in the wake of Sunday’s ruling ordering the conservative politician to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to choose a president for the High Court.
“We won’t let that happen,” Lapid warned, saying that if Levin fails to comply with the court, “we will try to convene the committee without him.”
Levin denounced the court’s decision as undemocratic and “invalid,” and said he would boycott the incoming president, since the appointment would be “illegal” and “illegitimate.”
“Levin acts as if nothing happened. As if there was no massacre on October 7, 1,200 Israelis were not murdered, as if more than 700 soldiers weren’t killed, as if we have no hostages in Gaza. He is one of those primarily responsible for the disaster that happened to us. He and his [judicial] coup d’état. Now he wants to bring us back to this terrible place,” Lapid said.
“This is a constitutional crisis… He wants to run roughshod over the court, he wants to abolish Israeli democracy. We won’t let that happen.”
Among those who opposed Sunday’s ruling was Finance Minister Smotrich, another one of Netanyahu’s far-right allies, who on Monday turned from criticizing the court to censuring the IDF.
Speaking with Kan public radio, Smotrich accused the army of having “insisted for months on not taking responsibility for humanitarian aid” in Gaza, which he said allows Hamas to retain power in the coastal territory.
Turning to the negotiations for a ceasefire/hostage-return deal, Smotrich said that “there is no deal on the table” and insisted that while “we are making every effort to bring them back alive,” he would “not commit collective suicide for this.”
