Jerusalem – Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid has not yet decided what portfolio to accept in the government Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to form next month.
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But he already knows what job he wants in the government after that: prime minister.
In an interview with Channel 2’s Uvda (Fact) program broadcast Monday night, Lapid made a prediction.
Asked if he will win the next election, he said, “I believe so.”
Sources close to Netanyahu have said that following Yesh Atid’s success in garnering 19 mandates in last Tuesday’s election, Lapid could choose any portfolio he wants in Netanyahu’s cabinet.
Lapid is expected to choose the foreign or finance portfolio, but a source close to him said that heading the Interior or Construction and Housing ministries are also possibilities. Lapid himself has refused to discuss portfolios.
United Torah Judaism held its first faction meeting since the election on Monday and called upon Netanyahu to form a coalition with them rather than Lapid.
They said the 18 MKs of UTJ and Shas would be more loyal than the 19 of Yesh Atid.
UTJ said the party’s red line that would prevent them from joining the coalition would be limiting the number of yeshiva students who want to learn Torah.
“What is equalizing the burden?” UTJ head Ya’acov Litzman asked rhetorically.
“Are they going to throw us in jail?” Incoming UTJ MK Meir Porush warned that there are hundreds of thousands of haredim who are ready to “sanctify God’s name” by battling against the government’s edicts.
Shas co-chairman Arye Deri told Channel 10 Monday that he was preparing to take his party into the opposition.
Four secularist organizations sent a letter to Netanyahu on Monday urging him to form a coalition that would pursue a civil agenda and would not include haredim.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
he’s got my vote. Bibi’s a useless clown.
My prediction: Bibi will form a big government including Lapid and UTJ.
I don’t think they have any “red lines” when it comes to the “bottom line” of a ministerial portfolio.
Don’t we remember another new party that came in with a boom but was wiped out completely when next election came around.
I’m expecting the same to happen to this “ocher yisroel”.
There is only one way to fight the draft just ignore them & protest them, they trying 60 years &………….nothing
although i like this man, i think hes in overdrive, first experience what a minister is….i think the coalition will be likuud/yesh atid/bait yehudi….maybe shas,,,,as its all about money if they need to send their kids to the army so be it…..utj wont be invited as they are too extreme….btw if shas doesnt join,,,its over for shas as most of their voters vote becuase of their education system….if they dont get money for that they lost all their voters…….so if all ends up straighten out for the norm in israel,,,,lots of credit goes to yair lapid…..btw lapid is not anti charadi hes for social equal justice,,,,which is what the torah stands for.
Why on earth should Netanyahu form a government with UTJ rather than Lapid? Lapid has the support of a large number of broad range Israelis. The language of “we would be more loyal”, is just what the Israeli public has just rejected: under the table dealing. UTJ wake up! Reach a compromise over the Yeshiva issue that will allow those who both want and are prepared to commit themselves to actually sitting and learn, to do so. So far as the majority of young haredim are concerned, they have no desire to “sit in learning” for ever. They want to marry, spend a few years in full time learning, then go and learn a profession so that their family can live as normal citizens, not paupers. Litzman, Porush and Deri have grand life styles. They don’t rely on hand outs. Let them go to jail if they want. Most haredim won’t even both to visit them, let alone go with them.