Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid said that it was imperative that his party, Yesh Atid, wins the elections and forms a government, adding that this was the most critical year in determining Israel’s fate during a Monday party conference called Fighting for Tomorrow.
Lapid told the attendees that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition were to win the elections again, “it would be the end of Zionism.”
“The state will collapse. We are the only ones who can save it,” he said.
October 2026 is the current scheduled election date.
Lapid also spoke on the importance of unity when building the next government, allowing for focus “only on what truly matters: sending home the government of Hamas's October 7 massacre.”
Lapid stresses only he can successfully form government
He said that this was the role of other opposition politicians in the elections as well, mentioning Yisrael Beytenu chair MK Avigdor Liberman, former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Gadi Eisenkot, ex-prime minister Naftali Bennett, and the Democrats Party leader Yair Golan in this regard.
The opposition leader went on to say that the coming elections “would not be easy this time either. Everyone will be involved – Bennett, Liberman, Eisenkot, and Golan. Each of them has already declared that he will be prime minister, or at the very least defense minister.”
“That is legitimate, I have no problem with people having ambitions, but someone also needs to know how to take all those forces and build a government out of them,” Lapid continued, saying that only his party would be able to form a government successfully.
“Apart from Yesh Atid, there is no one who knows how to do this,” he said.
“If you really want us to win the elections and form a government, Yesh Atid must be big, strong, and lead the camp,” Lapid added.
Throughout his speech, Lapid said that the stakes were high and that there was urgency behind the upcoming election. “This is the last chance to save the state. The change must be made now. If we do not save the state now, then in two years, there will be nothing left to save. The window of opportunity will close.”
Lapid also listed some of his party’s goals, which he stated include passing a constitution, along with “training good teachers and paying them properly.”
“Now we must fight corruption and protect the police and the courts. But above all, now we must bring our hostages home,” he added.
“There are two possibilities ahead: a successful, sophisticated, first-world country, respected worldwide, with liberal values, a love for Jewish tradition, and a strong sense of community, or a violent, backward, third-world country that turns Judaism into racism and seeks to eliminate democracy,” Lapid told those at the conference.
“We know how to build great things here and form a functioning, efficient government that will work for the citizens. Above all, we know what kind of country we want for our children,” Lapid said regarding his party.
“Only with us can you be sure that no one will steal your vote by handing it over to Netanyahu after the elections,” he added.
Parties begin preparing for next elections
The Yesh Atid conference comes amid an emerging climate in which parties are beginning to initiate plans, turning their attention to the upcoming elections.
Last week, Liberman requested that Lapid initiate a meeting with the heads of Zionist opposition parties, along with Eisenkot and Bennett, to set “guiding principles” for the next government.
Liberman had also held a one-on-one meeting with Bennett on the day of the Yesh Atid conference, where the two said they discussed replacing the government as soon as possible “to fix Israel.”
This week, the Arab parties – Ra’am (United Arab List), Hadash-Ta’al, and Balad also continued negotiations to reestablish the Joint List bloc ahead of the next elections.
MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash-Ta’al) told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that such a bloc would strive to prevent a right-wing government from being in power.
Before the current Netanyahu government, Bennett and Lapid had formed a national unity government in June 2021.
During that time, and per a coalition agreement, Bennett served as prime minister from June 2021 until July 2022, with Lapid succeeding him until the government was dissolved in December 2022.