Decade-old Yesh Atid has evolved into a ruling party, says coalition whip Toporovsky

Boaz Toporovsky advanced to the front of the Israeli political battlefield by filling a vacuum.

Following the abrupt and destabilizing resignation of coalition whip MK Idit Silman in April, none of her fellow members in the then-ruling Yamina party wanted the task of corralling the cats on a sinking government ship. Yesh Atid lawmaker Toporovsky, 42, took the role and guided the flailing coalition through its last month and dispersal, officially receiving the title of coalition chairman when the premiership passed to his party leader, Yair Lapid, two months ago.

Now, Toporovsky, Lapid, and Yesh Atid want to transform their caretaker government – filling the vacuum created by the fall of a coalition installed only a year earlier – into a permanent one.

To do so, Yesh Atid and its so-called “change bloc” is going head-to-head with the right-religious bloc led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While claiming a more “statesmanlike” tone, Toporovsky is quick to say Netanyahu is becoming an “extremist,” an assertion he bases on the legally embattled Likud leader’s criticism of state institutions such as the judicial system.

A founding member of Yesh Atid in 2012, Toporovsky has been deep in the party trenches from the get-go, serving as an MK in 2013-15 and rejoining its Knesset slate in 2019. He is deeply familiar with Yesh Atid’s electoral strategy, having run the ground campaign several times before graduating into responsibility for election day itself this year – an effort that requires coordinating about 30,000 paid and volunteer workers.

As Yesh Atid tries to extend its first, temporary tenure as Israel’s ruling party, Toporovsky said that it has matured in its 10 years of existence, having “learned” how to dialogue with various segments of Israeli society while still holding onto its core principles.

Whether this is enough to maintain its hold on the prime minister’s chair, however, will be determined in November.

Toporovsky sat down with The Times of Israel last week to discuss Yesh Atid’s evolution and strategy in advance of the November 1 Knesset elections. (The conversation was conducted in Hebrew and edited for brevity and clarity.)

The Times of Israel: You are the coalition’s representative on the Agreements Committee, a special election-period mechanism that enables the Knesset to bring legislation to a vote. What’s going on with Israel’s progress towards joining the United States Visa Waiver Program? Will the coalition and opposition come to an agreement to pass legislation required to advance Israel’s candidacy for the program during the election period?

Boaz Toporovsky: They won’t agree. Likud says, without shame, that it wants to be the one that takes credit for visa-free entry to the United States, and it has no problem with Israeli citizens paying the price when it gets held up for a year or two, or doesn’t happen at all. The goal is that the credit won’t go to this government.

I said in the Agreements Committee that “I’ll say that you did it,” that “it’s because of you,” that “it’s a joint effort.” The point is to do something good for the citizens of Israel. But what’s happening in the Netanyahu bloc is something that would never happen in Yesh Atid.

Because they were in control for so long, they got confused. Instead of realizing that they held the keys to power for a limited time, they think that the power is theirs, similar to what happened to Mapai [Israel’s first major ruling party]… We need to understand that we’re here to serve the citizens.

Likud says that it’s going to come back to power soon and is centering its campaign around its claim that Yesh Atid cannot form a government without major changes in the blocs. Right now, while the Netanyahu-led bloc is polling at 59-60 seats, the Lapid-led bloc is polling around 55 seats, well short of the required 61-seat minimum for a Knesset majority. How can you form a government?

The tables have turned. It’s no longer Bibi [Netanyahu] as prime minister and us wanting to replace him. The prime minister is Yair Lapid.

From the moment that Yair Lapid became prime minister, the ones that have to get 61 seats are the opposition. Ask them how they’re going to get 61; at the moment they don’t have it.

There’s no chance that Netanyahu will be a prime minister with Yesh Atid as part of the coalition.

We want Likud to be part of [a Yesh Atid-led] coalition… Likud is a legitimate party and a big party. We’d be happy for it to be in the coalition under us. But, it doesn’t fit with our principles that in the State of Israel, which is supposed to be a light upon the nations, we’d have a prime minister with three criminal indictments against him.

Lapid said the party won’t sit with “extremists,” and that the Joint List [of mainly Arab parties] won’t be in the government because it “doesn’t want to be.” What role do you see for the Joint List?

There will never be a party in the government that does not swear that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. The Joint List says “democratic” but doesn’t say “Jewish.” [Far-right Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar] Ben Gvir says “Jewish” but mumbles with democratic. Therefore, they won’t be in the government. We need a government that unifies, and by definition, a government that unifies cannot have extremists within it because extremists live in a separate space.

This is what I try to explain to Likud voters. Bibi isn’t center-right anymore. He’s become extreme. He wants to destroy one of the best judicial systems in the world — to destroy the law enforcement system, the state prosecution and the police, institutions without which there is no state.

We would be happy for Likud to be in the government, but it needs to return to be the Likud of [founder Menachem] Begin, of [ideological forefather Ze’ev] Jabotinsky, and not a fringe of people who have a personal problem with the Israeli judicial system.

You’ve said to me previously that this election will turn on voter turnout and a battle between liberal and conservative values. Do you think it will still also turn on where ‘soft-right’ voters land between the two blocs, and if so, what are you doing to attract voters to Yesh Atid? Other than adding Michal Shir to your list, what are you planning?

The soft right has to decide. The soft right doesn’t vote for the Religious Zionism party [of Bezalel Smotrich, set to run again with Otzma Yehudit]. It’s deciding between Likud, a bit [Zionist Spirit leader Ayelet] Shaked, and Gideon Sa’ar and the National Unity Party. And [National Unity leader Benny] Gantz has to go and say to them, whoever wants to be right and statesmanlike can’t go and vote for Likud.

Likud’s Knesset list is in the image of Bibi, who for a while now is not the statesmanlike right. Rather, it’s the right that says it wants to plow over the legal system.

Then you have two choices: Shaked or the National Unity Party. [Between those two,] I’d say vote for the National Unity Party, because the bloc is important [and National Unity is part of Yesh Atid’s so-called “change bloc”]. I’d prefer that they vote for Lapid, and many from the soft right are coming to us.

We are working there, we have a work plan for [attracting] every population within Israel, because Yesh Atid sees itself as a ruling party for all… We have a work plan for religious Zionists, for the Haredim, for the right, for the soft right, for the center, for the left, and for Arabs.

Let’s talk about the Arab community. What are your messages to them?

It might be that the elections will be determined by whether there is 40% or 60% voter turnout [in the Arab community].

Maybe it seems as if [Arab voters are] not relevant because they’re not Likud or Yesh Atid voters. But if another 100,000 Arab citizens vote, it affects the whole division of seats.

If you’re an Arab citizen and you don’t vote, it’s as if you gave your vote to Smotrich and Ben Gvir.

We tell [the Arab community]: first of all, vote for those who take care of you and not for someone who doesn’t represent  your interests. Vote for someone who really works for you, for your education and your security.

All of the reforms [aimed at tackling the ongoing, deadly crime wave in the Arab community] are being advanced by [Yesh Atid’s] Yoav Segolovitch, deputy minister of security. He’s saving lives in the Arab community. And Likud doesn’t want to save lives; it wants chaos.

You’ve been with Yesh Atid since it was first formed. How has the party transformed over time?

I’m here because in many ways it hasn’t changed. We’re leveraging the advantages of a decade in politics — experience, and people. In the beginning, Yesh Atid was a startup; even in our self-perception, until two years ago, we were a startup. Have you been to our old offices? There were 100 square meters, in an old building.

We have learned from mistakes. But the idea is the same idea. The ideology is the same, including [military] conscription for everyone. But what changed? We learned that we don’t have to go at it hard-headed.

What’s important to us is the security of Israel. Everyone needs to enlist into the military [or alternative service]. The security establishment will decide how that happens.

It’s all the same issues as in the beginning. We’ve just learned from experience. But the essence is the same essence, and that’s why most of the people who were here in the beginning are still here.

As part of this maturation process, have you become more conciliatory towards Haredim? The way the prime minister speaks about Haredim now is much softer than in the past.

There’s a difference between changing ideology and maturation. We didn’t change our ideology, we just matured.

If I sit next to a Haredi, and I – as the state – see that if he doesn’t work or enlist he’ll dip under the poverty line, such that instead of being a productive citizen, he’ll be a citizen that costs money and I have to pay for him, instead of saying don’t be a bum, you have to enlist, you have to learn English, we learned to say: If you don’t want to learn English, don’t expect us to pay for your education. If you don’t want to enlist into the military because you say you have a problem with [serving alongside] women, then do an alternative volunteer activity in your community. And then we build it such that the needs of the state [are appropriate for] people’s cultures.

What issue do you personally most want to champion and what role do you want in the next government?

The fight against traffic accidents. Almost no one deals with this. They think it’s unstoppable. Right now, I’m the head of the Subcommittee for Promoting Road Safety and I hold the transportation portfolio in Yesh Atid. [But in the next government,] I will do anything that prime minister assigns me to do, and I will do it with love.