Lapid urges Labor, Meretz to unite ahead of November election

With a potential American return to a nuclear deal with Iran and a threatened teachers’ strike delaying the school year opening, Prime Minister Yair Lapid tells reporters that the next government has a responsibility to protect “the future of our children,” arguing that the current election season is not putting enough focus on core security and quality of life issues facing Israelis.

Saying that politicians “talk about polls, talk about unions and splits, they talk mostly about themselves,” Lapid says that “the only question that matters” is “Where do we want to be in another four years?”

Having denigrated talk of party mergers and splits, Lapid goes on to say it is “incredibly important” that the left-wing Labor and Meretz parties run together in the election.

He says running alone is dangerous because if one of the parties fails to pass the electoral threshold “it will bring back [Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Itamar] Ben Gvir.”

He says his own Yesh Atid party will not be joining with any others.

Yesterday, Lapid told reporters that the current Iranian deal is a “bad deal” that “does not obligate” Israel, a message that he reiterates in response to reporter questions today.

Lapid also says that Israel has been able to successfully influence American positions on the deal meant to prevent Iranian development of a nuclear weapon, and that Defense Minister Benny Gantz and national security adviser Eyal Hulata’s visits to Washington this week include discussions on the issue.

“The Americans accepted a large part of the things that we wanted them to include in the drafts,” Lapid says in response to a reporter’s question. “The dialogue with them is good.”