Yair Lapid vows to “support any decision that will help the health care system, help put the economy back on track.”

He promises: “We’ll keep a watchful eye on this government. We have plans. We have experience. We have a national responsibility. As always, we’ll work for the nation of Israel and the people of Israel.”

He acknowledges that “Israel now has one national mission: To fight the coronavirus together. The coronavirus crisis is one of the most serious in the history of our country. We will work tirelessly to help the citizens of Israel get through this crisis. From the opposition as well. Because that is what’s important now.”

But the crisis, he adds, “doesn’t give us the right or permission to abandon our values. We promised not to sit under a prime minister with three criminal indictments. We promised not to sit in a coalition of extremists and extortionists. We said we wouldn’t allow anyone to undermine Israel’s democracy. And on this week of all weeks, in which the attacks on the justice system were at their worst, a prize is given to those who disobey the law. A prize to criminality. You can’t crawl into a government like that and tell us you did it for the good of the country.”