RAMALLAH: Israeli centrist Yesh Atid party and rightwing pro-settler Jewish Home party have formed an alliance reports the Times of Israel. The two parties have agreed to either join or refuse an alliance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party. President Shimon Peres has invited Netanyahu to form the next government; thereby naming him the next Prime Minister, but without the aforementioned parties a coalition will be impossible. Yesh Atid won 19 seats and Jewish Home won 12 totally 31, or more than one quarter of the 120 seats in the Israeli Knesset. The only hope Netanyahu would have would be the Labour party that has explicitly stated it will not join any coalition led by the Prime Minister. Though the two parties are seemingly disparate in terms of policy, they made demands that Netanyahu must meet before a coalition is formed. As of writing, Netanyahu has not responded to the newly formed pact. The Ambitions of Lair Yapid In a predictable move, Yair Lapid has expressed interest in becoming the next Prime Minister. Already established in Israeli television, his political star is rising. “I'm not sure I'll be in the coalition. I might lead the opposition. Netanyahu will impose financial cutbacks that will hurt the middle class. In a year and a half, I'll replace him. That's what my advisers think, too" Lapid told Channel 2 news. Lapid maintains that he is a champion of the Israeli middle class, portrays himself as somewhat of a hawk when it comes to security and has declared his desire for peace with Palestinians. Rabbi Daniel Landes recently wrote an article for The Daily Beast in which he outlined his reasons for voting Yesh Atid in January: “We were drawn to Lapid's party out of the intuition that it and especially its middle-class constituency have the combination of being both tough on security and able to look for and make an agreement with the Palestinians. They are risk averse where it counts, but by nature are attracted to a deal." While media reports are painting Lapid as a moderate man representing an Israeli swing to the middle, comments made by Lapid in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine cast doubt on such sentiments. “You know my father didn't come here from the ghetto in order to live in a country that is half Arab, half Jewish. He came here to live in a Jewish state. And we have 3.3 million Palestinians now between the sea and the eastern border of Israel. If we don't do something about it, her generation [nods toward a 15-year-old girl at the table] is going to spend her time with six or seven or eight million Palestinians." BN
