Yesh Atid’s candidates on Wednesday continued to emphasize the “serious
responsibility” they had inherited by winning 19 Knesset seats, echoing party
leader Yair Lapid’s theme in his post-election speech from Tuesday
night.
The echoes were all over television and the airwaves.
Adi
Kol, in Yesh Atid’s ninth slot, said the party’s big win was the “result of hard
work,” adding, “We all feel a heavy responsibility to fulfill our
promises.”
Kol said the promises amounted to the five principles
mentioned earlier in the day by Yael German, number three in the party, on which
Yesh Atid would not compromise: 1) equalizing the burden of serving in the IDF
or doing national service; 2) lowering the cost of living; 3) increasing housing
subsidies for young families; 4) inserting core studies into the haredi school
system; and 5) renewing the peace process.
Pressed about whether all five
were of equal importance, Kol said that “equalizing the burden is definitely
number one and reinvigorating the peace process is number
two.”
Questioned as to how the world might react to placing the peace
process behind a domestic issue like equal IDF or national service, Kol said she
tried hard to explain this to media and contacts outside the country, telling
them that it is “hard to work on outside problems when you still have so many
internal problems as a nation.”
Once the nation comes together, she said,
it will be easier to “resolve outside problems.”
Kol, a graduate of
Columbia University in New York City, also said she had “learned a different
kind of politics” at Columbia, noting that it is an American value to “respect
one another and not to go crazy and be angry and attack others.”
She
added that she hoped to “bring this change” to Israel and to be able to disagree
respectfully.