Yair Lapid: Center-Left must unite to beat Netanyahu.
By GIL HOFFMANMK Yair Golan (L) is seen at the Meretz faction meeting announcing he is formally joining the party.(photo credit: ADVA MAHLER)
Former IDF deputy chief of staff Yair Golan, who was elected to the Knesset as a representative of former prime minister Ehud Barak’s Israel Democratic Party, announced that he was formally joining Meretz at Monday’s Meretz faction meeting.Golan served as part of the Meretz faction in the current Knesset, but he never joined the party until now. In his address, Golan called on Meretz to widen its ranks, welcome new people and become the political home of the protest movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.He said there should not be more parties that run on the Left. Golan will run in Meretz’s primary for a top slot on its list.Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz formally welcomed Golan to the party and said more public figures were on the way.Horowitz faced criticism after the March election for reserving a slot for Golan at the expense of former MK Esawi Frej. The move appeared to cost Meretz votes from the Arab sector.Golan caused a controversy in October 2019, when he compared right-wing Israeli politicians to Nazis.“I’m reminding people that the Nazis came to power democratically, so we have to be careful, very careful, so that extremist figures with a messianic view won’t exploit Israeli democracy to replace the system of government,” Golan told Radio Darom.Opposition leader Yair Lapid told his Yesh Atid faction that the Center-Left must unite behind him.“Yesh Atid is the only option to beat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” Lapid said. “So choose: Do you want to unite or lose to the Right? You want to win? You’ll need to unite behind us. We’re going to elections, it will be tough and if you don’t unite behind us, Netanyahu will win and the country will suffer.”
