Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Barak: Gantz and Lapid must unite to defeat ‘racist extremism’ in Netanyahu camp

20 February 2019, 5:37 pm Edit

Former prime minister Ehud Barak is urging a merger between centrist parties Israel Resilience and Yesh Atid to defeat “corruption and racist messianic extremism” offered by Netanyahu and his right-wing camp.

In a tweet, Barak says reports the two parties are close to a unity pact mean party leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid are “coming to their senses at the last second.”

“The goal is to get Israel back on track, to end corruption, the abandonment of citizens and racist messianic extremism,” he says. “Only unity will win.”