Lapid promotes unity in first speech as prime ministerial candidate

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, a day after he was given the task of forming a government, said in a broadcast news conference on Thursday night that compromise for the unity government he plans to set up is a goal. It will be a mix of parties, he said, but different people with difference views don’t make them enemies.

Referring to the refusal of MK Amiha Chikly, a member of his partner Naftali Bennett’s Yamina, to support a government depending on Arab parliamentary support, Lapid said the situation was under control.

Likud lawmaker Avi Dichter said in a TV interview: “Let no one imagine that we have given up on forming a right-wing government. Lapid will fail and we will undertake another round of negotiations and next time we’ll succeed.