Israeli ‘George Clooney’ turned Netanyahu’s main rival

JERUSALEM.- Centrist Yair Lapid, former Israeli TV star with an air of George Clooney, has gained credibility since entering politics, to become the prime minister’s main rival Benjamin Netanyahu in the legislative elections on March 23.

When in 2012, this star journalist left televisions to launch his evening Yesh Atid (“Hay un futuro”)His detractors criticized him for playing with his image as a movie star to seduce the middle class. Almost ten years later, Yair Lapid is still there.

On your campaign posters, Netanyahu includes photo of Lapid, with his face stretched out against a blood-red background, which contrasts with the prime minister’s smiling face with the Israeli flag in the background.

In the last legislatures, Lapid joined his party in the centrist “Bleu-Blanc” coalition of former General Benny Gantz. But when in the spring of 2020, after three elections that failed to bind Netanyahu and Gantz, the latter promised to form a unity government with his rival, Yair Lapid packed his bags.

“White blue” to separate and Lapid became leader of the opposition while Gantz’s popularity plummeted. “I told (Benny Gantz) ‘I’ve worked with Netanyahu before (…) and he won’t let you get your hands on the wheel,'” Lapid told AFP a few months ago. . “Gantz told me, ‘we trust him, he’s changed.’ And I said ‘the 71 year old man is not going to change’. And unfortunately for the country, I was right, ”adds Lapid, who He was finance minister for 20 months (2013-2014) in a Netanyahu government.

Born in November 1963 in Tel-Aviv, city where support is concentrated, Lapid is the son of the late journalist Tommy Lapid, former Minister of Justice with Ariel Sharon. His mother, writer Shulamit Lapid, is one of the teachers of the Israeli detective novel, with a series of investigations in which the protagonist is a journalist.

Journalism permeated the youth of Lapid, who wrote his first articles for the newspaper Maariv, before moving on to Yedioth Aharonot, the bestseller of the country, which gave it great notoriety.

At the same time, the man with the square jaw continued his activities: he boxed as an amateur, practiced martial arts, wrote detective novels and television series, composed and performed songs and even acted in films. Pero fue en la televisión -en los años 2000 se convirtió en presentador del talk-show más seguido del Estado hebreodonde se impuso como la encarnación de israelí medio, haciendo siempre la misma pregunta a sus invitados: “¿Qué es ser israelí en his opinion?”

Patriot, liberal, secular, vilified by Orthodox Jews, key allies of Benjamin Netanyahu, he succeeded in shaping the center. “Lapid is eloquent, charismatic (…) but the Lapid who had the knife between his teeth has changed”, recently assured the political journalist Yuval Karni in the Yediot Aharonot.

“He refrains from bragging” and “is the most” non-candidate “of all candidates for prime minister”says the columnist, stressing that Israelis “appreciate” humility. In recent weeks, its popularity has increased. The latest polls give his party some 20 out of 120 seats in parliament, second behind Netanyahu’s Likud (right).

When thousands of Israelis protested against Netanyahu, every week for months, at the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem and on the country’s bridges and viaducts, Lapid kept a low profile. “I went to the bridges (…) but I had the feeling that I had a problem to demonstrate as leader of the opposition in front of the residence of the Prime Minister”, declared the principal concerned that one day he could live on Balfour Street.

Agencia AFP

THE NATION