Lapid: If Netanyahu wins the next election, ‘it will be the end of Zionism’

Israelis are facing “the last chance to save the country,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declared Monday, insisting that if Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu’s coalition wins the elections again, it will be the end of Zionism.”

Addressing political activists at a gathering of his Yesh Atid party in Tel Aviv, Lapid warned that “if we don’t save the country now, in two years, there will be nothing left to save. The window of opportunity will close.”

Israelis currently are presented with two choices: “a successful, sophisticated, world-renowned first-world country, with liberal values ​​and love for Jewish tradition and a strong sense of community, or a violent and backward third-world country, which turns Judaism into racism and wants to eliminate our democracy,” he stated.

Declaring that Israel needs to pass a constitution, improve its education system, and “protect the police and the courts,” Lapid argued that “only with us can you be 100 percent sure that no one will steal your vote and pass it on to Netanyahu after the elections.”

Opposition politicians ranging from Gadi Eisenkot to Naftali Bennett have all “declared that they will be prime minister, or at least defense minister,” and while he has “no problem with people having ambitions,” somebody “also needs to know how to take all these forces and build a government from them,” Lapid said.

“We are in an election year. Apart from Yesh Atid, there is no one who knows how to do it. If you want this to happen, if you really want us to win the elections and form a government, Yesh Atid must be big, must be strong, must lead the camp,” he added.

Lapid nevertheless appealed for unity among opposition factions, calling “to concentrate only on what is truly important — sending home the October 7 government, and saving the State of Israel.”

The next national election must be held by October 27, 2026. Recent opinion surveys aired by Israeli television have shown Yesh Atid polling behind theoretical electoral slates led by Bennett and Eisenkot as well as fellow opposition factions Yisrael Beytenu and The Democrats.

Those same polls have shown that Netanyahu’s Likud party would receive the most seats of any faction if fresh elections were held, though together with the parties that make up his current ruling coalition would be well short of a majority needed to form a government.

In light of those results, longtime Netanyahu associate Natan Eshel said Monday that “there is only one solution that will get the State of Israel out of most of its problems — a change in the method of regime,” Channel 12 news reported.

“As long as small parties extort the big parties, the country is not being managed,” Eshel was quoted as writing in what the network described as a privately circulated letter.

According to the report, Eshel called for a return to the system of direct elections for prime minister from the 1990s — Netanyahu’s first election to the premiership, when he defeated Shimon Peres in 1996. However, Israel reverted back to voting for parties, rather than individuals, five years later because it proved too hard to form a coalition following the vote.

If such a system were to be revised, Netanyahu could be in a better position to retain the premiership despite polling consistently showing his parliamentary bloc would lack a majority, as surveys have shown that among his rivals only Bennett secures similar levels of personal support among voters when asked who is best suited to be prime minister.

Netanyahu last pushed for legislation to restore direct elections in 2021 after he and his right-religious partners failed to secure a Knesset majority following a fourth round of voting in nearly as many years, part of an unsuccessful bid to prevent Bennett from becoming prime minister.

“We must do everything so already in the next elections we will vote [for prime minister] like that,” Eshel reportedly added.