Former Minister of Education Rabbi Shai Piron has said that in the upcoming elections he will vote for the National Unity Party, led by Benny Gantz, and not for the Yesh Atid party of which he was a member in the past.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by former Israeli journalist Nadav Perry, Rabbi Piron said that even though his support for Benny Gantz's entry into the government with Netanyahu harmed the friendship between him and Lapid, he still thinks Yesh Atid is worthy of being a ruling party. However, in the upcoming elections, said Rabbi Piron, "I will vote for Hili Tropper."
In August of last year, Rabbi Piron told the Yediot Aharonot newspaper why and when the relationship between him and his friend Yair Lapid was severed.
"After I publicly supported the unity government, Yair decided that this did not suit him, and it hurts me very much," Rabbi Piron said of his support for the establishment of the unity government of Gantz and Netanyahu. Lapid was strongly opposed to its establishment and separated from Gantz due to this move.
"After I called him, in an article I wrote that called for a unity government, 'Yair my friend', I received a short WhatsApp message from him: 'Don't call me my friend'. And that's it. We haven't spoken since. One of the reasons why I'm not in politics is that there are no friends in politics. And I don't know how to live without friends,” he added.
Asked whether he responded to Lapid’s message, Rabbi Piron said, "I replied for many months. Almost every Friday. He never replied back."
"I love Yair Lapid very much and I owe him a lot. I wouldn't have been Minister of Education without Yair Lapid. You wouldn't be interviewing me now if he hadn't appointed me as number two in Yesh Atid. But if Lapid looks at his speeches in the Knesset in 2013 about the haredim, and on the other hand about his ability to form a government in 2021, I think it is not impossible that if some of the statements in the past had been different, the chances of forming a government now would have been higher. Do I understand why Yair said those things back then? Yes. Do I agree? Not with everything."
"I understand him. And I would still write it again, because my commitment is to ideas and ideology. If God forbid something happens to Yair I will get there first, and if he succeeds, I will be the first to congratulate him, but there are also things that I am allowed to think differently than him. I love the guy. He does good things. For me it is heartache. It really is."