The chairman of the Yesh Atid Party, MK Yair Lapid, responded on Thursday to Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett’s decision to resume negotiations with the Likud on the formation of a right-wing government.

“I heard Bennett’s announcement tonight. Bennett is wrong. Change is not made when it is convenient, those who wait for the right moment will find that it never comes. I have no intention of giving up. I will turn every stone in order to form a government in the coming weeks,” Lapid said.

“If we do not succeed, we will go to unnecessary and dangerous elections and win them. In the name of all the good Israelis who refuse to accept a government that tears us apart from within as a way of working. It is precisely now that we need to form a new government in Israel, as soon as possible,” he added.

At the start of the statement, Lapid said that “what is happening in recent days on the streets of Israel is an existential threat. Only the state is allowed to use force. When citizens take the law into their own hands, there is no state. You cannot weaken the police and then be surprised when they do not come when they are called upon.”

Bennett announced earlier on Thursday that the Yamina party has ended its attempts to form an alternative government with Yesh Atid and other left-wing parties, committing itself to working towards either a right-wing or unity government with the Likud.

“I’ve taken the government of change off of the table,” Bennett said.

“A government of change, as it had been planned, won’t be able to hold up given the problems in mixed cities. Sending in the army to those cities and carrying out administrative arrests – those are things that cannot be done when you rely on Mansour Abbas.”

Bennett went on to say that he will try to bring in the New Hope, Blue and White, and Yesh Atid parties to a new government.

“I will work towards the establishment of a broad national unity government with Sa’ar, Gantz, and Lapid,” he stated.

Source: Arutz Sheva