Lapid attacked former party chairman at studio 12, due to his decision to go to a unity government • "Even in freezing values" • Nissenkorn: "Lapid planned the split in advance"

Strong words: Yesh Atid party chairman Yair Lapid sharply attacked his former partner in the Blue and White party, MK Bnei Gantz, following the recent decision to join a unity government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Earlier, MK Avi Nissenkorn accused him of parting with Bnei Gantz, because Lapid and his partner Moshe Ya'alon planned the split in advance.

Torch after a white-blue split: "Gantz crawls for Netanyahu's government; disappointing move"

"It was not a unity government," Lapid said in an interview with Rina Successful to meet the press. "If someone comes in with 14 seats to the 58 bloc, it is not unity." Lapid also addressed the difficult way in which he described entering the government - crawling as he put it, and said that even if he tried for 1,000 years, he would not be able to reach the same level that he reached Netanyahu.

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"I wanted unity," Lapid continued, "but for the past two weeks we did not understand why they are not pushing for my son's unity, I have not seen a situation where someone with the mandate, and with the support of 61 Hakim, have not seen anyone who, just before the finish line, sits on the floor and bursts into tears. Gantz just didn't want to, "he argued.

When asked by Torch what the additional options were, he rejected the possibility of pushing for a fourth election, arguing that the person leading the possibility of forming a minority government was Gantz himself, and detailed: "There was a double outline that everyone agreed on - or that the Knesset took over, set the laws and after two weeks assess the situation, In addition, I proposed a freeze in which we will not interfere with the government to work until the end of the Corona crisis.

"Principles and values ​​are not a matter of when it was easy," Lapid continued. "Now it is hard, you have to work for the public, but not freeze them. We will protect the values ​​and at the same time act. I will support anything related to Corona." Regarding disagreements with Gantz, he said: "We promised that we would not sit under a prime minister with indictments, we promised that we would not sit in an extreme government, we saw this as the basis for Israeli society," Lapid also estimated that at the time of the Netanyahu rotation he would not fulfill his word and promise.

"I stood on every stage and said we would not sit under Netanyahu, the fact that there were legitimate arguments - from Thursday I was surprised. I was sure we all believe Blue White should be kept anyway, and they were not in the same head." Regarding who split the party, Lapid said "The veteran politician trusted the new politicians who went to stir behind their backs."

Nissenkorn: "Most of our voters support the course, respect the opinion of the opponents"

Before Lapid arrived, the former Histadrut chairman and member of Gantz's party, Nissenkorn, also hosted the move and the blue-and-white split. Nissenkorn said there was no collapse and the remaining disagreements were on how to guarantee that the rotation Netanyahu undertook would take place.

"We want to ensure rotation, and that is the goal of what we do. We eventually need to reach a unity agreement," Nissenkorn began, dismissing claims that during the negotiations, Gantz gave up most of his positions, and in fact "dropped to four."

"The unity government is the main thing, you have to understand that the economy needs a deep recovery and a revolutionary budget. We need to do it together - it is an emergency," he said, adding that "we will not compromise on democracy, equality and rotation."

Regarding the possibility that Netanyahu could serve as a government member during his trial - even after taking office as prime minister, Nissenkorn affirmed that there would be changes to the existing law to allow this. Regarding the distribution of the files, he said that his party wanted former Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein not to return to the post of Minister of Health, but made it clear that these issues were negotiated and would not prevent the establishment of a unity government. Nissenkorn replied that "the corona forces unity."

Finally, he addressed the dissolution of the partnership with Lapid and Ya'alon, and accused the two of planning the disassembly in advance: "The request was ready in advance, and was submitted within an hour. We did not disband the party." To this, Lapid replied: "Ten days ago the system talked about the fact that they were going to split up between us, I am a tidy person, I prepared in advance - but I did not think it would happen. I told Nisnkorn - my son broke up blue and white. We announced in advance that we would not remain in the party that did not fulfill its obligations to the voters." .