Hitting back at Lapid, Likud says Blue and White ‘has no choice’ but to woo Arab parties

The Likud party hits back at Blue and White co-leader Yair Lapid who said yesterday the newly formed faction would be willing to join a Likud-led government if it did not include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a statement, the party repeats claims made by Netanyahu that Blue and White intends to cooperate with Arab Israeli parties in its bid for leadership change.

“Lapid and [ex-IDF chief Benny] Gantz will form a weak, leftist government with the support of a bloc of Arab parties, they have no other choice.”

“Lapid’s first call will be to [Meretz MK] Tamar Zandberg, who said today she is willing to give up the Golan Heights,” the ruling party says. “Only a large Likud party can prevent a leftist government.”

At a campaign event in Karmiel last night, Lapid stressed that the party would not band together with the Arab parties to form a government or to block Netanyahu from forming his own coalition.

Instead, Lapid said that if Blue and White is tasked with forming the next government, its first phone call will be to the current ruling party.

“We won’t form a government with the Arab parties, we will contact Likud — the post-Netanyahu Likud, that is — to form a national unity government at this time of division and rifts,” he said, claiming that “Netanyahu won’t stay if he loses.”