Consultations with Herzog continue for the second day * Ram Ben Barak challenges Lapid for Yesh Atid leadership, then backs down.
United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and the Religious Zionist Party have both recommended that Likud leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu receive the mandate to form the next government in their meetings with President Isaac Herzog on Thursday morning. Their recommendations came at the start of the second day of presidential consultations with representatives of each party that will be a part of the next Knesset.
The consultations began on Wednesday and included Likud, Yesh Atid, National Unity and Shas.
First to visit the president on Thursday was UTJ, represented by MKs Yizhak Goldknopf, Uri Maklev, Meir Porush and Yaakov Asher. The party recommended Netanyahu as the next prime minister.
Asher said to Herzog that the main message from this election was that a large majority of the Jewish population in Israel wanted public spaces to be respective of Judaism and of the Sabbath. UTJ will demand the regulation of the haredi public’s rights in the upcoming budget, including receiving the funding it deserves by law for education, which it currently is not receiving, Asher claimed.
Goldknopf said that the party would demand to cancel all of the “decrees” of the previous government that harmed the haredi public, including a reform that awarded haredi citizens more freedom in choosing “kosher” cellphones, and the kashrut reform meant to increase competition and lower prices.
Maklev pledged that the party would not just care for haredi citizens but for all of Israel’s citizens.
Porush claimed that there were people who were trying to harm the “sacredness” of the Western Wall, presumably referring to attempts by reform and conservative Jews to hold mixed-gender prayers at a separate section of the wall.
Next to hold talks with Herzog was the Religious Zionist Party, represented by MK Orit Struk and incoming MKs Ohad Tal and Moshe Solomon. The party also recommended Netanyahu for prime minister, as was expected.
Regarding the Override Clause which RZP leader MK Bezalel Smotrich championed in his election campaign, Struk said that a ruling this week regarding a rapist who entered a plea deal showed that the justice system was not functioning well enough.
Struk stressed that despite the consultations at the president’s residence being largely ceremonial, it was a miracle that just two generations ago this would have been a pipe dream for many Jews.
She declined to receive questions but said regarding the Override Clause that “there will be a government and it will fulfill its promises to its voters.”
Ram Ben Barak challenges Yair Lapid
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair and Yesh Atid MK Ram Ben Barak announced on Thursday on KAN Radio that he would challenge Yesh Atid party leader and outgoing prime minister Yair Lapid for the party leadership.
“I think that my chances are not high,” he admitted, admitting that “over the past year and a half Lapid proved leadership and an ability to navigate [the country] in very sensitive security situations,” Ben Barak said.
However, Ben Barak clarified his statements in a Facebook post soon after.
“I believe, and always believed in Prime Minister Yair Lapid (thanks to him I joined politics) and all I want is for him to be the next prime minister,” Ben Barak said. “Currently, all I want is for him to lead the opposition against what is appearing to be critical damage to Israeli democracy and I will continue to support him,” Ben Barak wrote.
No one challenged Lapid for the party leadership ahead of the previous election. The only person to challenge him since the party’s founding was former MK Ofer Shelach, but he did not remain in the party.
Ben Barak added in the interview that he thought that Religious Zionist Party leader MK Bezalel Smotrich was not fit to serve as Defense Minister, as Smotrich “believed in building a third temple and in the Redemption.”
Earlier on Thursday, outgoing prime minister and soon-to-be leader of the opposition Yair Lapid called for unity among his bloc in the opposition, saying that it is the only way to prevent the destruction of Israeli democracy.
“If we want to stop this crazy and destructive rampage, we need to work together,” the Yesh Atid leader wrote in a statement shared on his social media pages. “If we want to protect Israeli democracy and prevent religious coercion and the exclusion of women, we need to work together. If we want to return to power – we must work together,” Lapid wrote.
Lapid’s comments came after Labor leader Merav Michaeli accused him of being responsible for the bloc’s loss in the election, and Yisrael Beytenu and National Unity refused to recommend him to the president to be the next prime minister.
The public statement was Lapid’s first to the leaders of the parties in his bloc since the election last Tuesday.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post