From heart-throb to the hot seat: Lapid to become prime minister

Starting off as a TV personality, the Yesh Atid chief has built a solid resume of cabinet roles and statecraft while making no secret of self-teaching throughout his time in public service; now he is in for the big league
Reuters|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
As a TV star, Yair Lapid's weekly commentary was entitled "Being Israeli" - a rhapsody about the middle-class, politically centrist ranks that he saw holding together a fractious country, with him as their tribune.
  • Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter

  • As interim prime minister, the still-chiseled but now gray-haired Lapid, who will welcome U.S. President Joe Biden on his visit to Israel next month, may have to reach out more widely to maintain a stable government.
    4 View gallery
     ישיבת ממשלה
     ישיבת ממשלה
    Destined prime minister Yair Lapid
    (Photo: EPA)
    A decade in public service at the head of the Yesh Atid ("There is a Future") party which he founded and in which he has never faced a serious challenger, the 58-year-old has built a solid resume of cabinet roles and statecraft.
    Now foreign minister, the center-left Lapid has also held the finance portfolio and sat in the security cabinet - Israel's decision-making forum on war or peace.
    Next week, he will take over from Naftali Bennett as prime minister when lawmakers vote to dissolve parliament and pave the way for the country's fifth election in three years.
    In contrast to Bennett's impatience with talk of renewing talks on Palestinian statehood, Lapid has described such diplomacy as necessary for Israel's well-being - but argued that both sides are too domestically hamstrung to pursue them.
    4 View gallery
     ישיבת ממשלה
     ישיבת ממשלה
    Lapid and outgoing prime minister Naftali Bennett at a government meeting
    (Photo: Reuters)
    On Israel's arch-foe Iran, the two have been in lockstep and Lapid is not expected to change course.
    Despite not graduating from high school, Lapid became a successful writer and made no secret of self-teaching with each new government role.
    During an earlier stint in Hollywood working for Israeli-U.S. mogul Arnon Milchan, Lapid gained a regard for American power projection and expectations of a Middle East ally.
    In 2005, he wrote a popular TV series, "War Room", whose dialogue and camerawork drew directly from "The West Wing" but whose premise was an Israeli fantasy: a secret unit of elite spies and military officers who handled national crises as professionals, rather than politicians.
    4 View gallery
    יאיר לפיד
    יאיר לפיד
    (Photo: The Knesset Channel)
    But Lapid learned how to horse-trade.
    After an unhappy alliance with Benjamin Netanyahu, he teamed up with Bennett to topple the veteran premier a year ago at the head of an unprecedentedly diverse coalition of nationalist, liberal and Arab parties.
    That entailed spurning ultra-Orthodox Jewish factions who found themselves in the opposition and whose leaders have long scorned Lapid as "Yaheer" - Hebrew for "arrogant" and a pun on his first name.
    Lapid rather inherited that mantle.
    His late father, Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, was a Holocaust survivor turned secular politician who delighted in antagonizing rabbis. But while invoking the elder Lapid's memory of the Nazi genocide when advocating for a tough stand against Israel's enemies, Yair has been slower to seek intra-Jewish quarrels.
    4 View gallery
    Yosef 'Tommy' Lapid
    Yosef 'Tommy' Lapid
    Yosef 'Tommy' Lapid
    (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
    "What has happened in the past few days, what has happened here tonight, is further proof that the Israeli system is in need of serious change and major repairs," he said, standing alongside Bennett at a handover ceremony on Monday.
    "What we need to do today is go back to the concept of Israeli unity. Not to let dark forces tear us apart from within."
    6Comments
    add comment
    The commenter agrees to the privacy policy of Ynet News and agrees not to submit comments that violate the terms of use, including incitement, libel and expressions that exceed the accepted norms of freedom of speech.
    6.
    “THIS SHOULD READ. FROM “HEART THROB TO DETACHED ROCK STAR”
    Eden| 06.22.22
    10
    add comment
    The commenter agrees to the privacy policy of Ynet News and agrees not to submit comments that violate the terms of use, including incitement, libel and expressions that exceed the accepted norms of freedom of speech.
    5.
    Look how low this State has Fallen !!!
    I could have written a shorter article !! IN SHORT : A talker (media nobody), just like many other politicians !! Look how low this State has Fallen !!! WHERE ARE THE REAL LEADERS ???
    RAW TRUTH| 06.22.22
    10
    add comment
    The commenter agrees to the privacy policy of Ynet News and agrees not to submit comments that violate the terms of use, including incitement, libel and expressions that exceed the accepted norms of freedom of speech.
    4.
    Israel must become a REAL democracy
    We need the electoral threshold raised to 10% to end the era of the small single issue parties and the personality parties like Yeah Atid and Blue & White which are parties created for the purpose of giving 1 man a fast track to high level politics. Get rid of these parties and your left with a handful of mainstream ones. We also need a PM elected independently from the Knesset who serves for a fixed term no matter what happens to the coalition, if we had that the anybody but Bibi elections would have never happened because they cannot refuse to sit in coalition with an independently elected PM. At least 50% of MKS must be elected directly in regions so there is some public accountability because right now we cannot get rid of an individual MK no matter how much we dislike them because their loyalty is to the party. We also need to get rid of the laws that permit political parties to force rebel MKSto resign from the Knesset because then you have a situation where anybody who disagrees with the party leadership leaves the Knesset to make way for a loyalist so there is no questioning the leadership on any policy. The rebels like Sillman, Chikli, Orbach were brave because they were willing to stand up to the party leadership because they believed in something and it clashed with the official policy. The Knesset does not work and never did and we now need an electoral system for voters not the individuals wanting a political career,
    zionist forever| 06.21.22
    11
    add comment
    The commenter agrees to the privacy policy of Ynet News and agrees not to submit comments that violate the terms of use, including incitement, libel and expressions that exceed the accepted norms of freedom of speech.
    Load more talkbacks
    ""