Eyeing comeback, Lapid calls for return to big-tent coalition

The next government must include parties from across the political spectrum that are willing to focus on “efficiency, integrity and functional governance without discretionary funds for the coalition and unnecessary government ministries,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares.

“People need to know that the government is looking out for them, not for itself. They need to believe that the government cares about them,” Lapid tells a conference at Tel Aviv University.

“In order to fix things, we need to build and create an entirely new kind of Israeli coalition. It needs to include people from the right, center, and left, who understand that hope is action,” he continues, insisting that “the next Israeli coalition should be decent, moderate, efficient. Truly democratic, truly Jewish.”

In 2021, Lapid cobbled together a government composed of parties from across the political spectrum — but not including the ultra-Orthodox — opposed to Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, making history by including the Arab party Ra’am. The coalition fell apart after a year under the weight of mounting political differences.

“Democracy is a way of life, Judaism is a reason for life,” Lapid states at the conference. He indicates that his vision includes resisting ultra-Orthodox efforts to legislate military draft exemptions for the Haredi community. “The next coalition will engrave on its banner equal sharing of burden, because Haredi evasion – under the auspices of the government, in a time of war – is turning us into a state that disdains the sacrifice of its fighters and citizens. We must not accept that.”

Lapid asserts that the next government will prioritize the interests of the middle class taxpayer and that “whoever gives more, will receive more.”

The next government must also “commit from day one to the basic principles: obedience to the law, separation of powers, the values ​​of the Declaration of Independence, equal rights and duties,” he says.

He adds, “There is another small but important thing: we need to speak more nicely to each other. Less poison. For this to happen, the first step is to recognize that we need and want to work with people who are different from us.”

Instead of focusing on the 20% of issues on which the country disagrees, the focus should be on the 80% on which there is a consensus, he urges, repackaging a refrain used to help keep his former coalition together.

“It is true that it fell prematurely,” he says of that coalition, “but that was not the end – it was the beginning. We started, we made mistakes, we know today what needs to be fixed and what to do differently.”