Israel Elections: Yair Lapid declares war on parties in bloc

Taking votes away from its satellite parties could help Yesh Atid compete with Netanyahu's Likud.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Updated: MARCH 14, 2021 21:43
MK YAIR LAPID: Arab parties deserve being part of decision-making process. (photo credit: OREN BEN HAKOON/FLASH90)
MK YAIR LAPID: Arab parties deserve being part of decision-making process.
(photo credit: OREN BEN HAKOON/FLASH90)
Yesh Atid changed its political strategy for the March 23 election on Sunday and began a campaign to woo supporters from its satellite parties in the Center-Left camp and the bloc aiming to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Until now, Yair Lapid’s party was careful not to attack the smaller parties in the Center and Left out of concern that they would fall below the electoral threshold.
But on Sunday afternoon, the party sent out text messages that warned against wasting votes on Blue and White, Labor and Meretz without mentioning them by name.
“Netanyahu failed, because he cared only about himself and not the state,” Yesh Atid wrote in the messages. “All those who took part in the bloated and wasteful government left Netanyahu in the Prime Minister’s Residence. You cannot replace the government with parties with five seats, and parties with six seats cannot save democracy. Big changes can only be made if Yesh Atid is large.”
Taking votes away from its satellite parties could help Yesh Atid rise above the 19-20 seats the party currently gets in the polls and compete with Netanyahu’s Likud, which receives 27-29.
Receiving double the mandates of Yamina and New Hope could also make clear that Lapid would be the camp’s candidate to form a government after the election and not Yamina leader Naftali Bennett or New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, who have both vowed not to sit in a government led by Lapid.
Sources in Blue and White and Labor warned Lapid that he was only harming himself.
A Channel 13 poll broadcast on Sunday night predicted 28 seats for Likud, 20 for Yesh Atid, 11 for Yamina, nine for New Hope, eight for the Joint List, seven for Yisrael Beytenu and United Torah Judaism, six for Labor, Shas and the Religious Zionist Party and four for Meretz, Blue and White and Ra’am (United Arab List).
The New Economy Party of former Finance Ministry accountant-general Prof. Yaron Zelekha was predicted to win only 2.1% of the vote, well below the 3.25% electoral threshold.
But in a move that could harm Labor and Meretz, Zelekha said Sunday that he would remain in the race until the end. He said the public does not believe the “fake polls,” and that he still believes he will be the “big surprise” of this election cycle.
Because Zelekha broke his promise to quit ahead of the election if he was not crossing the threshold, his No. 3 candidate, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Prof. Yoram Yovell, announced on Sunday that he would be dropping out of the race. Yovell told confidants that he did not want to waste votes.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev social work professor Alean Al-Krenawi will move up from fourth to third on the list. Krenawi was introduced as the Labor Party’s candidate to be a minister in the last election. He was chosen in the past to light a torch on Independence Day.
Zelekha said that the party respects Yovell’s decision, adding that it is “a shame that the agenda-filled pressure campaign,” as he referred to it, “denied Yovell from serving the Israeli people in the Knesset.”
Idan Zonshine contributed to this report.