Gantz and Lapid Present Joint Slate as Polls Thrust Them Ahead of Likud

Benny Gantz arrives to deliver his first electoral speech in Tel Aviv on January 29, 2019

Chaim Levinson and Haaretz staff report “The newly-formed alliance between Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, Kahol Lavan, would overtake Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s Likud if a general election was held today.

“Polls conducted by Channel 12, 13 and Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, showed on Thursday evening. Just hours after Gantz and Lapid announced the formation of Kahol Lavan, Channel 12’s poll showed the union would get 36 seats in the next Knesset, while Likud would receive 30. Channel 13’s poll, meanwhile, predicted Kahol Lavan would get 36 seats, compared to 26 for Likud. Kan’s poll also put Kahol Lavan on first place, with 35 seats, with Likud coming in second with 32.”

Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid chief

“In his first press conference since announcing the joint party, Gantz said in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening that “Israel has lost its way,” adding that “we are here tonight to say ‘enough.” Gantz, a former Israeli army chief of staff who founded the party Hosen L’Yisrael before merging with Lapid, called for diplomacy instead of extremism and “national reconciliation instead of incitement.” According to Gantz, “something has gone awry in the last decade, because Israel lost its way. This is a divide-and-conquer government that tears people apart.”  (more…)