Lapid urges Gantz to drop out of election race

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid urges his former ally turned rival Benny Gantz to drop out of the election race, predicting his Blue and White party won’t clear the electoral threshold in the March 23 vote.

“Blue and White won’t clear the electoral threshold,” Lapid tells the Walla news site. “If it continues running, it will throw 80,000-90,000 votes in the trash. If Benny Gantz is still a responsible man, he needs to quit.”

Lapid and Gantz ran on a joint ticket in the previous three rounds of elections. But Gantz split the alliance after the March 2020 elections and formed a government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his campaign promises to the contrary, while Lapid refused to do so, remaining in the opposition.

Blue and White party chairman Benny Gantz (R) and No. 2 Yair Lapid, at a faction meeting in the Knesset on November 18, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)