Despite strong Gantz polling, Yesh Atid insists Lapid the only Netanyahu challenger

In the first response from the party to Benny Gantz’s maiden political speech yesterday, a Yesh Atid source tells The Times of Israel that it is “pleased to see Gantz is adopting parts of our manifesto, we hope he’ll also follow our lead on the rest of our manifesto including our detailed plan to fight corruption and the importance of everyone studying core curriculum subjects.”

The source, however, said that only Yesh Atid could effectively challenge Netanyahu, despite the first poll since the speech showing that the electoral alliance between Gantz’s Israeli Resilience and Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem party would overtake Yesh Atid to be the second largest faction in the Knesset following national elections in April.

“With due respect to Gantz, the only question is who can beat Netanyahu and there are two important factors – who can go head to head with Netanyahu in the political arena and which party can go head to head with the Likud in the field. The only answer is Lapid and Yesh Atid,” they said.

— Raoul Wootliff