Summary
The new centrist party organised following the J14 Movement, claiming to represent the middle class, which in Moments of Resistance Chapter 8 is the most successful channeler of the J14 protest: it shifted the 2011 claim for equality of rights towards equality of obligations, fanning hostility against ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens exempt from military service (Moments of Resistance, PDF p.269).
Details
- Together with the decaying Kadima, Yesh Atid adopted the egalitarian discourse of the 2011 protest, co-opted some of its leaders, and organised demonstrations taking the place and time planned by J14 for renewing its carnival (PDF p.269).
- Headed by Yair Lapid, it offered the voter an attractive list of newborn stars — social activists, journalists, businessmen and popular mayors — with nothing in common except the demand for equality in conscription and the desire to gain political power (PDF p.273).
- In the January 2013 elections the newborn parties gained 31 seats, 19 of them Yesh Atid and 12 the Jewish Home (PDF p.273).
- After the elections the newborn parties formed a block whose joint demand was a new law of conscription for all, seeking to block a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox parties; no other agendas concerned them, completely distorting the social justice demands of the 2011 resistance mo(ve)ment (PDF p.273-274).
Related pages
Moments of Resistance, J14 Movement, Yair Lapid, Jewish Home, Tribal Channeling