Lapid: We will start work tomorrow on building a sane government

Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid, speaking just as an exit poll is released showing him potentially beating out Netanyahu for the first time, tells supporters that he’ll start working on cobbling together a “sane government” tomorrow.

He praises his party’s discipline in staying out of the mud and making sure that smaller parties in his potential bloc crossed the Knesset threshold.

“Three months ago, we brought down the government. We were the fourth largest party in Israel and now we are the second largest and leading the change bloc,” he says. “We did it with responsibility, we made sure to keep all the parties in the bloc above the threshold and to keep alive the chance of change in Israel.

“As of this moment, Netanyahu does not have 61 seats but the bloc that seeks change does. We’ll wait for the actual results. But as things stand, there will not be a government with the Kahanists… and homophobes,” he says. “I’ve started speaking to party leaders and we’ll wait for the results but we’ll do everything to create a sane government in Israel.”

“We have reason to be proud of the way we have behaved, and even more reason to be proud of the result we have achieved,” he says.