Lapid welcomes Herzliya, Dimona mayors to party

Two new Yesh Atid candidates introduced at press conference focusing on party's belief in changing political system.

OCTOBER 22, 2012 19:42

Yair Lapid 370 (photo credit: Ricardo Mallaco) — Yair Lapid 370

(photo credit: Ricardo Mallaco)

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid on Monday officially introduced two new candidates running on his party’s list – Herzliya Mayor Yael German and Dimona Mayor Meir Cohen.

German, formerly a Meretz member, became Herzliya’s first female mayor in 1998, and has served in that position ever since. Cohen was elected as Dimona mayor in 2001, when he was aligned with Yisrael Beytenu.

Lapid said that the two additions to his party “deal daily with the bureaucracy that wears down the citizens of Israel."

During the press conference an emphasis was placed on a central element of Yesh Atid’s platform: the need to change the political system in Israel.

German said that politicians have forgotten the concept of “[for] the good of the public,” and said the system needs to undergo “fundamental change."

“We must stop this system in which the government reaches roughly into the citizen’s pocket,” he stressed.

Lapid welcomed the two mayors into the party, saying “Yael and Meir are exactly the type of people who understand that the system is not working. They are the people who have struggled for years, everyday, with the fact that our politicians do not care about the public, only about themselves.”

“They are here because they know that until we switch the system, nothing will change here.... Yael and Meir are here because that is how Yesh Atid works,” he said.

German said that in the 14 years she served as mayor, she saw the way in which the government system runs the lives of Israeli citizens. She added that, after observing problems in issues of education, housing, welfare and health, she concluded that “something fundamental, basic, does not work.”

Expressing similar sentiment, Cohen stated that what unites the candidates running on the Yesh Atid list “is the desire to repair the system.”

On Sunday, Lapid said that Yaakov Peri would not be the second candidate on his party’s list, sparking rumors that national-religious Rabbi Shai Piron will fill that spot.

“Yaakov Peri is a senior member of Yesh Atid, not No. 2.

No. 2 will be revealed in time, and I am proud of him,” Lapid said in an interview on the Knesset Channel.

Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.