Yesh Atid emphasizes 5 principles in its victory lap
Party’s No. 9 learned ‘different’ political way at Columbia.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBYesh Atid leader Yair Lapid 370(photo credit: Efrat Sa'ar)
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.
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