Lapid says anti-Netanyahu bloc must ‘stop nonsense and focus on the goal’

By Sam Sokol 23 February 2026, 4:20 pm

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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"

Opposition leader Yair Lapid leads a Yesh Atid party faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on February 23, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid doubles down on his call for the anti-Netanyahu camp to unite behind his Yesh Atid party, declaring that “this is not the time to gamble, you have to play it safe” and arguing that the opposition factions must commit to not sitting with the prime minister in a future coalition in order to win.

Addressing reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Lapid reiterates the statement he made last week that the “liberal bloc” may no longer be able to win the next election and must unite behind him and warns against “complacency and excessive self-confidence.”

“The camp needs to stop doing nonsense and focus on the goal. There is no room for mistakes. We are facing a tough and desperate opponent. They have money, they have television channels, they are completely uninhibited. We can win, we have to win, but it is going to be difficult,” he says, insisting that elections are won through “iron discipline” and “by having people who go door to door to increase the voter turnout.”

“Elections are won when everyone knows in advance that you will not enter another Netanyahu government under any circumstances, and will not surrender to the Haredim,” he continues, calling the upcoming elections “the most critical in the history of the country.”

“What wins elections are purposeful professionals who know what they are doing, preferably those who have already done it before,” Lapid says, insisting that “there here is only one such party on the field: Yesh Atid is the key to victory” and that while he will not speak negatively about other opposition figures, “we are the only ones you can count on.”

“Because our camp is divided, it needs a central axis that you can count on. Yesh Atid is the central axis,” Lapid reiterates, stating that anti-Netanyahu party leaders Naftali Bennett, Gadi Eisenkot and Yair Golan are not current members of the Knesset, while his party blocked the coalition’s judicial overhaul agenda and “evasion law.”