Prime Minister Yair Lapid “is behaving irresponsibly,” Labor Party chairman and Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli said at the Maariv and Jerusalem Post Leaders’ Summit (in collaboration with Walla!) eight days before the Israeli election.
She also warned that Israel was facing an undemocratic future.
Lapid's election irresponsibility
Michaeli was asked about Lapid’s effort to unify Meretz and Labor, in which he had warned that Labor wouldn’t pass the mandate threshold without it. She responded that she had no such fears, but that despite all the prime minister’s concerns he was acting irresponsibly. “I don’t understand the fine line he walks,” said Michaeli.
“The game is very clear. After four election campaigns, we are all great experts, and know that it is a bloc game. It is not a question of the largest party, but whether the bloc will win. I am committed to the bloc winning. Voting for Labor is success for the bloc.”
Equality and democracy
Michaeli claimed that the only party that addresses women’s issues is Labor, and because of this it was one of the few truly democratic parties.
“Everyone talks a lot about democracy, and these are parties that do not have democracy,” she said. “Labor is a super democratic party, which understands the meaning of democracy. There is a connection between whether there is democracy in the party and the quality of democracy in Israel, and it is now at stake.”
Transportation and Jewish identity
Michaeli said that her goal was for Labor to be strong enough to keep the Transportation Ministry and to have a minister over the Finance Ministry.
The transportation minister was asked about concerns Shabbat transit reforms could be reversed, and in response, she dismissed the idea that public transportation was what defined Israel’s Jewish identity.
“Preventing people who have no money or physical ability to drive on Shabbat is an intolerable inequality,” said Michaeli. “I am not ready to accept that this is what defines Israel’s Jewish identity.”