Lapid says there's 'no chance' he would join Kadima

In Facebook message, former journalist turned politician calls Kadima a "group of cynical politicians."

By JPOST.COM STAFF, GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Yair Lapid 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Yair Lapid 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Former television news presenter and recently-announced political contender Yair Lapid said late Thursday night "there is no chance" he will join Kadima.
In a note posted on his official Facebook page, Lapid described the party headed by opposition head Tzipi Livni as, "a group of cynical politicians who escaped from other parties." Nobody, he added, "has any idea in what Kadima politicians believe."
RELATED:Yair Lapid would destroy Kadima, poll finds
"There is no way I would join them," he wrote to his supporters, "Clear enough?"
Earlier this month, Lapid ended years of speculation when he announced he would follow in the footsteps of his late father, former Shinui chairman Yosef Tommy Lapid, and shift careers from journalism to politics.
Lapid was expected to take his time forming a new party and drafting the candidates list while holding events around the country to meet and listen to the public.
A Shvakim Panorama poll broadcast on Israel Radio late last month found that Kadima would fall from its current 28 seats in the Knesset to only 10 if Lapid entered politics and formed a new party.
The poll predicted that Lapid’s party would win 15 seats, the same number his late father, former justice minister Yosef “Tommy” Lapid, won at the helm of Shinui in 2003.
More than 4,000 people have volunteered to work on behalf of the new party being formed by Lapid since he entered politics two weeks ago , Lapid wrote on his Facebook wall on Monday.
"With an army like this, we can already change the country," Lapid wrote. "Keep on coming and bringing more people with you. We can't do it without you."
A new group calling itself "Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) for Yair Lapid" started a Facebook page Monday. Reaching out to haredi voters, the son of the late secularist Shinui leader Yosef Tommy Lapid said: "I am against all expressions of hatred toward haredim. They don't help anyone."