From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Lapid dismisses idea of running on joint slate with Yair Golan’s The Democrats
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
His Yesh Atid party will not run on a joint slate with Yair Golan’s left-wing The Democrats party, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares.
“Netanyahu says ‘everybody who is against me is on the left,’” Lapid tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
“Why should we work for his campaign? No one has a problem passing the threshold. There is no ideological, ethical, or practical reason to unite the left and the center. They are two different things,” he says.
Last week, Golan called for a pre-election merger of his party with the two largest centrist parties to compete with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc.
“We must unite before the elections and form the largest party within the bloc, a party that will be the alternative to lead the next government and set Israel’s course,” Golan said at a conference titled “Democratic Israel Will Win.”
He urged Lapid and Benny Gantz, who chairs the centrist National Unity party, to work together to offer voters what he referred to as a democratic Zionist alternative to the current government.
The Times of Israel Community.