Lapid heard accusing left-wing leader Golan of trying to ‘weaken’ Yesh Atid party, in leaked audio

Sam 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"

(L) Yesh Atid leader MK Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on May 12, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) and (R) The Democrats party leader Yair Golan holds a press conference in Tel Aviv, May 20, 2025 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
(L) Yesh Atid leader MK Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on May 12, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) and (R) The Democrats party leader Yair Golan holds a press conference in Tel Aviv, May 20, 2025 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused Yair Golan’s leftwing The Democrats party of “weakening” his centrist Yesh Atid party during a Zoom with party activists, according to a leaked recording published by the Kipa news site.

The Democrats “want to weaken us because they want to draw votes away from us,” he says. Such behavior is “legitimate in the political world, but they also know the truth — and the truth is that Yesh Atid is doing an exceptional job in opposition under very difficult conditions, winning battles without losing its identity and without becoming what it hates.”

Asked about Lapid’s comments ahead of his weekly faction meeting, Golan replies that his party is “fighting for the country and democracy, and therefore we are getting stronger.”

“If Lapid’s Yesh Atid is weakening, there is a simple answer to that: I simply invite them to join us — to join us in the struggle to save Israel.”

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