Lapid: 2024 will be an election year

"We will topple the government and build a good and fair government that will fundamentally change the priorities in Israel." said Lapid

 Israeli opposition leader MK Yair Lapid is seen at a Yesh Atid faction meeting in the Knesset, in Jerusalem, in Israel, on June 19, 2023. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Israeli opposition leader MK Yair Lapid is seen at a Yesh Atid faction meeting in the Knesset, in Jerusalem, in Israel, on June 19, 2023.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

Next year will be an election year, said opposition leader Yair Lapid during a speech at the Social Justice Centers conference on Sunday.

"This is the plan," he said. "We will topple the government and build a good and fair government that will fundamentally change the priorities in Israel."

Earlier, Lapid had encouraged an 18-month freeze on judicial reform legislation, saying that he had originally suggested it during negotiations at the President's Residence but had been turned down immediately.

The same suggestion now exists in the outline that was leaked last week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu is reportedly working hard to finalize by Monday.

 LIKUD LEADER BENJAMIN Netanyahu shakes hands with United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Goldknopf in the Knesset last week. If Netanyahu’s promise of a full budget for all haredi educational institutions is realized, the already-low incentive to provide core studies will disappear entirely. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
LIKUD LEADER BENJAMIN Netanyahu shakes hands with United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Goldknopf in the Knesset last week. If Netanyahu’s promise of a full budget for all haredi educational institutions is realized, the already-low incentive to provide core studies will disappear entirely. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

"A year-and-a-half of quiet is what this nation and its citizens need to breathe," said Lapid. "It's enough time to reach broad agreements, and it's the time we need to rehabilitate and heal the economy, the people's army, and Israeli society."

Judicial Reform or Draft Law

Whether the reform legislation is frozen for 18 months or not, the ultra-Orthodox parties have made it clear that they will not allow it to continue until the Draft Law is passed. Housing and Construction Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf even warned that there would be no government without a new Draft Law.

Lapid also spoke strongly about the Draft Law, calling it the Military Evasion Law.

"It cannot pass," he said. "The Haredim have to enlist like our children, and they need to work like the rest of us. We won't allow for a law that discriminates between blood and blood, and we won't agree to pointless outlines whose only goal is political interest."