He is a prime-time news anchor largely known for his good looks, but Yair Lapid has emerged as one of the strongest opponents to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
When Lapid founded his Yesh Atid party in 2012, some hailed him as the latest in a series of media stars trying to earn a reputation for political success.
Yesh Atid, a secretive, centralist party, said 19 seats in Knesset with 120 members in the 2013 elections, earned Lapid a short leg as finance minister under Netanyahu and considered him a trusted force in politics.
That belief is now reaching new peaks.
Yesh Atid joined the Blue & White centrist coalition formed in 2019 under the leadership of former military leader Benny Gantz.
Blue & White then defeated Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud in three elections – all indefinitely – in less than a year.
When Gantz decided last spring to enter into a coalition led by Netanyahu, announcing the need for unity as the coronavirus epidemic spread, Lapid bolted.
He accused Gantz of breaking a basic promise Blue & White had given his supporters: that he would fight to oust Netanyahu.
In an interview with AFP in September, Lapid said Gantz had believed that Netanyahu would work collaboratively within the coalition.
“I (Gantz) said, ‘I’ve been working with Netanyahu. Why don’t you listen to the voice of knowledge … He’s 71 years old. He’s not going to change,'” Lapid said.
After leaving Blue & White, Lapid entered parliament as Yesh Atid’s leader and opposition leader.
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An ultra-direct attack walk past an election campaign poster with the image of Yair Lapid (top) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (bottom), in Bnei Brak
(Photo: AFP)
He described Netanyahu-Gantz’s recently united unity government as a “laughing coalition”, in which disaffected cabinet ministers did not bother to communicate.
He also expected the coalition to collapse in December, which he did, amid bitter outbursts between Netanyahu and Gantz.
Lapid ‘modified’
Lapid is the son of 57-year-old Tel Aviv former justice minister Yosef “Tommy” Lapid, another journalist who left the media to get into politics.
His mother, Shulamit, is a novelist, playwright and poet.
Yair Lapid, an amateur boxer and martial artist who has also published a dozen books, including thrushes, children’s literature and non-fiction, was a newspaper columnist before becoming a presenter on Channel 2 TV, a role that inspired her strength.
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Lapid and his wife Lihi voted at a polling station in Tel Aviv during the March 2020 election
(Photo: AFP)
Voting shows Yesh Atid won between 18 and 20 seats on March 23, apparently leaving it as the second largest party in Knesset, behind Likud.
While it could replace Gantz as the strongest force in the camp against Netanyahu, Lapid’s path to a 61-seat majority and the main building is complex and seems to require a difficult alliance. of Israeli Arab correctors, leftists and lawyers.
Lapid, who once appeared on lists of Israel’s most desirable men, is now running a vigorous campaign to position himself as the alternative to Netanyahu, political columnist Yuval Karni wrote in the publication of Ynet’s sister, Yediot Aharonot.
“Lapid with the knife between his teeth has changed. He rarely gives interviews, refuses self-aggrandizement and instead slams mud (against his religious Jewish opponents ) … unveiled a plan on climate change, “Karni wrote.
“Lapid has now launched a campaign for the prime location, or more properly, a campaign to replace Netanyahu.”