Yair Lapid’s trial of fire
Analysis: Netanyahu's attack on Lapid over his police testimony wasn’t just a spin for investigation purposes; the prime minister sees the Yesh Atid leader as a real threat to his rule. Lapid is one of the only players in the political system who knows how to speak and physically looks like a prime minister.
He won 19 Knesset seats in the 2013 elections and easily slipped into the finance minister’s seat. His short term there didn’t leave much of a mark. In the 2015 elections, Yesh Atid lost some Knesset seats, but Lapid landed on his feet. He turned to the opposition and went on to become the biggest political threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rule, at least according to current polls.
In the past few weeks, perhaps for the first time in his political career, Lapid has been forced to deal with a “trial of fire.” Two trials, in fact. The first was a report on investigative television program “Uvda” about his good friend and faction member, Yaakov Peri. According to the report, Peri had failed a polygraph test after allegedly leaking information to Shas Minister Aryeh Deri about an investigation against him in the 1990s while Peri served as Shin Bet director.
Lapid chose to ignore the first part of the report. He even released a short statement mocking the people who exposed the findings. The second part, about Peri’s alleged lies regarding his military service, were treated in a completely different manner. After Peri was asked to comment and before the show was even aired, he announced his resignation from the Knesset. God knows what was said in the conversation between Lapid and Peri behind closed doors, but Lapid’s disregard of the first part of the report likely disappeared.
But the Peri affair looks like child’s play (especially as Likud members failed to attack Lapid about it, possibly to avoid embarrassing their coalition partner Aryeh Deri) compared to the second trial Lapid is dealing with now. This is his real leadership test—the fact that his name has been linked to the Netanyahu affairs.
A gift to Avi Gabbay
Half an hour before the police published their recommendations in the Netanyahu investigations, Police Spokeswoman Merav Lapidot briefed crime reporters from the different media outlets on the investigation’s findings. When she spoke about the tax exemption law which businessman Arnon Milchan gained from and which, according to the police, Netanyahu had tried to advance in exchange for benefits, Lapidot surprised the reporters by telling them that one of the dozens of witnesses in the affair was none other than former Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who immediately entered the eye of the storm.
Netanyahu, who doesn’t miss a single mistake made by his rivals, enthusiastically grabbed this detail. While Lapid isn’t the key witness in the affair as some people have claimed (there are several witnesses, including senior Finance Ministry workers), the prime minister and his defenders in the Likud party used his testimony to launch an offensive, with Coalition Chairman David Amsalem calling Lapid a “snitch.”
Lapid was in trouble. On the one hand, he definitely doesn’t want to taint the investigation or himself and create the impression that he testified against Netanyahu in an attempt to topple him; on the other hand, he was simply summoned by the police and told the truth.
It took him almost 24 hours to come to his senses and release a recorded speech. Amsalem and his friends are “talking like criminals,” he said. “Don’t threaten us.”
In these two minutes, Lapid looked like someone who is trying to convey determination but is also alarmed by the situation forced on him. He hadn’t planned the storm, which is just at its inception. Later on, especially if the attorney general decides to file an indictment in Case 1000, Lapid’s trial will intensify, as will the fire.
Netanyahu's attack on Lapid wasn’t just a spin for investigation purposes. The prime minister sees the Yesh Atid leader as a real threat to his rule. Lapid is one of the only players in the political system who knows how to speak and physically looks like a prime minister.
And one last point: The row sparked by Lapid’s testimony can also be seen as a gift to Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay. So far, Gabbay’s rivals have said he won’t be able to form a future coalition due to his conflict with Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avgidor Lieberman. Now, Lapid’s rivals are saying he will have a problem too. “Let’s assume Netanyahu goes home because of him, among other things. Will Likud be able to forgive him and sit in the same government with him?” one of the Likud members has said. Looks like things aren’t going to get boring here.
