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Breaking to the left and aiming for Gantz's soft underbelly: Prime Minister Lapid's calculated speech at the UN - voila! 2022 election

2022-09-23T06:03:48.626Z


Reviving the Palestinian issue marks an appeal to left-wing voters that may endanger Meretz and Labor, floods the difficulties in Gantz's vague political formula - and tries to arouse the Arab street


Breaking to the left and aiming for Gantz's soft underbelly: Prime Minister Lapid's calculated speech at the UN

Just like his predecessor, the Prime Minister took advantage of the international stage for political purposes. Reviving the Palestinian issue marks an appeal to left-wing voters that could endanger Meretz and Labor, flooding the difficulties in the vague political formula of the national camp - and trying to arouse the Arab street, his only chance to keep the seat

His dew

09/23/2022

Friday, September 23, 2022, 07:38 Updated: 08:54

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Lapid at the UN Assembly: "Two states for two peoples - the right thing for Israel" (Photo: Reuters)

Opens with a calming siren.

The morning after Prime Minister Yair Lapid's first speech at the UN General Assembly, "Hamastan in the heart of the country" did not arise, as former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned, or "a state of terror in Israel", in the words of Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar, and we did not return to "The cursed days of Oslo", which frighten the chairman of religious Zionism, Bezalel Smotrich. Lapid's call for support for the two-state solution is also not likely to lead to political negotiations towards a permanent settlement, not even a meeting with the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen.



Not an hour had passed since Lapid finished his speech and the usual Palestinian answer over the years to the Israeli overtures was not long in coming: another terrorist attack.

As the security tensions continue and escalate into the holiday season, the vision that Lapid presented in his speech, of a "Palestinian state seeking peace", will soon be buried in yesterday's headlines - and will become the object of ridicule in the negative videos of the Likud as having made an alliance with Abu Mazen,



Lapid did nothing that Netanyahu had not done before;

Until a few years ago, he was the one who stood in front of the prestigious green marble setting of the United Nations and expressed support for the two-state solution. The difference is that Lapid really means it, and is not just paying lip service to world leaders. Netanyahu spoke in English to soften the international community, but in Hebrew, To the home audience, he continued to promise that a Palestinian state would never be established. For Lapid, the message in English was leaked in Hebrew in advance - and aimed directly at the hearts of the base.

He used the stage for internal political needs.

Prime Minister Lapid speaks at the UN last night (Photo: Reuters)

It is true that Lapid tried to distinguish himself from his predecessor in the position, but just like him, he took advantage of the prestigious international stage that happened to him for internal political needs.

The important strategic issues remained, Iran, Hezbollah and terrorism, and the messages were not very different from Netanyahu's, with differences in presentation and style, of course, Lapid also knows how to put on a show.

Instead of presentations and pyrotechnic aids, he chose to excite those sitting in the hall and the spectators at home with personal and family stories.



On a political level, the most interesting gimmick in Lapid's speech was the promo itself;

The early briefing he gave to the journalists of the Prime Minister's entourage in New York 24 hours before he took the podium, in which he announced in advance his intention to return the phrase "two states" to the agenda. The whole system immediately jumped with the generator of the expected reactions; on the right they cried out, on the left they rejoiced, even Ra" M Halifi Naftali Bennett got angry and went against his partner.

Everyone played according to his flute and played the role he assigned them on the field.

The trailer created a buzz, interest and curiosity for the broadcast of the speech, which according to Netanyahu's method will be timed almost precisely for peak viewing at the beginning of the broadcasts.

And he discovered that it was not about a few more words in a speech, but a calculated and strategic move.

More in Walla!

Lapid at the UN Assembly: "Two states for two peoples - the right thing for Israel"

To the full article

Prepared for a speech for weeks.

Lapid speaks at the UN last night (Photo: Reuters)

The visit to the United Nations General Assembly is the peak of Lapid's display of purpose as Prime Minister so far, and he has been preparing for it for weeks. While the Prime Minister's Office worked on coordinating the political meetings with King Abdullah and Turkish President Erdogan, the Yesh Atid campaign examined and tested the messages with in-depth surveys that it is correct to utter in a speech that they will work in public as well.

"A large majority of Israelis support the vision of a two-state solution," Lapid announced yesterday.

A few minutes later, a News 12 survey contradicted him with the opposite results, according to which 49% of Israelis actually oppose the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and only 28% support it.

But the data in in-depth surveys and studies that continuously monitor the positions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such as the Peace Index of Tel Aviv University or the Geneva Initiative, strengthen Lapid's claim, at least regarding reaching out for peace, and approximately 50% of Israelis support at least negotiations with the Palestinians , most of them are voters of Lapid's bloc.

And to them the speech was directed.



The decision to revive the Palestinian issue, which was neglected and forgotten in the Yes/No Bibi floundering, marks a break from Lapid to the left, to the voters of Meretz and the Labor Party, and may endanger both parties in the region of the blocking percentage for the upcoming elections.

But no less than that, it is aimed at the soft underbelly of the partner/opponent from the center - Gantz and the state camp.

The Defense Minister, who a week ago called to "reach out a hand for peace to the Palestinians" in the title of an interview with "Yediot Ahronoth", fell silent.

He is one of the only party leaders who has not responded to Lapid's speech so far.

Gideon Sa'ar and Ze'ev Elkin actually did, and condemned him as expected with a loud noise;

The new entrant Gadi Eisenkot kept quiet, but his position is known.

"We need to change the reality," he said in past interviews in which he warned of the dangers of a binational state.

One of the only party leaders who did not respond to Lapid's speech so far.

Benny Gantz (photo: official website, Mark Israel Salem)

Dealing with the Palestinians overwhelms the difficulties in the vague political formula of the state camp of "conflict reduction", Lapid hopes that the determined right-wing of Sa'ar and Elkin will help him bite the left fringes there and curb the opposite effort of Gantz and his people to become stronger at his expense.

This week the state camp launched a campaign to build a mathematical coalition, designed to echo the message that only Gantz will be able to form a stable government after the elections, with which they are trying to take votes from Mish Atid.

Meanwhile, the numbers work against both: all the latest polls foreshadow a trend of Netanyahu getting stronger.

Let's prepare for now, the dissolution of the joint list drops Balad below the blocking percentage and returns the right-wing bloc to power with 60-62 mandates.



There are those who suspect that Lapid has come to terms with the situation and is now working to increase the power of Yesh Atid in the opposition, even at the cost of the bloc's collapse.

Those around him deny and reject the defeatist approach outright.

His only chance to keep the seat does not go through bombastic words at the UN, but at Umm al-Fahm - only if there is a dramatic increase in voting rates in the Arab sector, which will bring Balad into the Knesset or significantly strengthen the power of Ra'am and Hadash - Tel Aviv in order to be a blocking bloc for Netanyahu. Lapid's peace speech is also intended to arouse the Arab street and present it with an alternative to the dreams of annexation and expulsion of the Netanyahu and Ben Gabvir government. It is not impossible that he will give the same speech again in the coming weeks and repeat his support for the two-state solution, at the conference Or a rally - at Umm El Faham.

  • 2022 election

  • Columns

Tags

  • Yair Lapid

  • Benjamin Netanyahu

  • Benny Gantz

Source: walla

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