Yesh Atid holds first leadership vote — with Lapid widely expected to maintain power

Voting was underway Thursday in the centrist Yesh Atid party’s first contested primary, as MK Ram Ben Barak attempts to unseat longtime chairman and founder Yair Lapid.

A select group comprising just over 700 members of the party conference are eligible to cast ballots in the internal election. First announced late last year, only days before Hamas’s October 7 attacks, the vote was postponed from its original December date due to the war.

Lapid, who continues to maintain a strong hold over the party, is widely expected to sweep the vote.

Addressing his supporters in a video message posted to Twitter on Thursday afternoon, Lapid called for their “strength and backing,” arguing that if the party wants to make a strong showing in the next general election, his “must be a convincing victory.”

Ben Barak has not presented a strong challenge to the longtime leader, stating repeatedly that he does not differ materially in his policy outlook from Lapid and is mainly running in order to promote the “democratization” of the party, which has been under the same leadership for over a decade.

“I think renewal and refreshment is a good thing for the party,” Ben Barak told Hebrew daily Israel Hayom last month.

“The difference between Lapid and myself is that I have a collaborative management method — I often pay attention and listen and am not afraid to change my decisions if I hear a different opinion. On the contrary, I encourage different opinions and encourage strong people around me. And Lapid works differently,” he said.

Polls are now open in Yesh Atid’s leadership primary! @YairLapid @Ram_Ben_Barak https://t.co/V0qq6qmUia

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— Yesh Atid English ???? (@YeshAtidEnglish) March 28, 2024

Yesh Atid, founded by former journalist Lapid in 2012, has never yet held a primary election. It had planned on holding one in 2022, but it was canceled when he ran unopposed.

A former deputy head of the Mossad spy agency, Ben Barak entered politics in 2019 and served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the previous government of Lapid and Naftali Bennett.

He recently made waves internationally when he called on the international community to take in Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, an appeal that he later said was misunderstood as a call for population transfer.

One party official said of Ben Barak’s run that he’s “calling for term limits. It’s a renewal thing. I don’t think he’s critical of Lapid or what he’s done. He’s saying its time for something new, for a changing of the guard, and he’s calling for more democracy within the party.”

While a spokesman for party MK Elazar Stern confirmed to The Times of Israel that he would vote for Ben Barak, no other Yesh Atid MK has so far come out in favor of the challenger.

Yesh Atid MK Moshe Tur-Paz told The Times of Israel prior to the polls opening: “I appreciate Ram very much and I think he could be a good leader and he does excellent things.

“I think Ram is saying Yesh Atid needs a change and he can give more democratic values to the party, more of a voice to the voters, and I hear that, but I think Lapid is the one to lead us for the coming years,” he said.

Asked why the primary wasn’t opened up to a vote by the entire party membership, Tur-Paz hinted at the populist shift within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, stating: “We saw what happened to parties like Likud and don’t want Yesh Atid to look like [that].

“I think we chose a good path. It may not be the last evolution but at the moment for a party like Yesh Atid, a young party, this is the right way to go,” he said.

In its initial announcement last year, Yesh Atid said that convention members may submit their candidacy if they fulfill the following criteria: they are legally eligible to serve as prime minister; they have been party members continuously for at least the last three years; and they have not been charged with a crime of moral turpitude — a clear broadside aimed at Netanyahu, who faces fraud and bribery charges in three criminal cases.

Israeli law does not allow citizens who have been charged with crimes of moral turpitude to serve as ministers — but the premiership has no such limitation.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.