Lapid: ‘No situation in which we will enter’ Netanyahu government
Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke about the legacy of Yitzhak Rabin on the anniversary of the late Prime Minister’s assassination, calling for national unity and for people not to hate their political opponents.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid arrives for a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, July 31, 2022. Credit: Marc Israel Sellem/POOL.
But the Prime Minister also made it clear that he has no intention of joining a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, as he had promised not to do during the elections.
Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, but since that fell on a Friday this year the official commemoration was held on Sunday.
“Rabin taught us, in his life and in his death, that in this business we are all in, managing countries and charting the path,” said Lapid, “you are measured by the question of whether you are ready to go to the end. To the end with what you think is right. To the end with your principles and values.”
Lapid went on to declare that, even 27 years later, Yitzhak Rabin’s ideas “live with us. Of blessed memory.”
Lapid said that “as fate would have it” this year’s commemoration for Yitzhak Rabin came just a few days after Israel held a national election. Lapid lamented that elections meant returning to a nation, “again divided, again angry, again threatening to split into us and them.”
On losing the elections Lapid said that he would not “waste my life hating whoever won.”
“I’m not getting ready to turn my back on those who didn’t choose us,” he added “Those who believe in Israeli democracy when they win, should also believe in it when they lose.”
But Yair Lapid also made it clear that his Yesh Atid Party will not be joining in any new government led by Benjamin Netanyahu obstinately declaring, “there is no script and no situation in which we will enter the new government.”
Yair Lapid once served briefly as a cabinet minister under Netanyahu. The experience left him adamant in wishing to see Netanyahu forced out of power, especially after the former prime minister was indicted on corruption charges.
Opposition to Netanyahu personally has been central to Lapid’s political agenda. Unfortunately for Yair Lapid, and his political block, it seems that this was not enough to win the elections.
Lapid went on to promise that his party “will fight from the opposition for our worldview and the values of a huge public that elected us.”
“We will fight – until we return to power, added the outgoing Prime Minister. “This is also Rabin’s legacy, this is also part of his biography, to never give up what you believe in.”
