After bursting onto the political scene with a surprisingly strong showing in Israel's last election, Yair Lapid said he was bound for the prime minister's office. But today the telegenic ex-anchorman, actor and novelist hopes to avoid becoming another flash in the pan.
His fledgling party, Yesh Atid or "There's a Future," came from nowhere in the 2013 election to capture 19 of the Knesset's 120 seats, second only to the party headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But instead of leading his largely secular and middle-class supporters into opposition to battle Netanyahu, he cut a deal to join the prime minister's government as finance minister — but also wilted his own grass roots support in the process.
On the campaign trail ahead of the March 17 election, Lapid has dumped his previous brash talk of replacing Netanyahu as Israel's leader and emphasizes he simply wants his party to retain enough votes to be a force in parliament, either back in the Cabinet or in the opposition. He's hoping that voters forgive him for propping up Netanyahu, and instead credit him as the man whose bitter breakup with Netanyahu's Likud triggered this early election.
"It's not about who I want to be, it's about what I want to do," Lapid told The Associated Press last week at a late-night Super Bowl party with supporters in a Tel Aviv bar.
Whether there's a future for Lapid's barely three-year-old party may seem like a local issue for Israelis alone. But Yesh Atid's tepid performance in opinion polls is dispiriting for the legions worldwide who want Israel to dump the internationally unpopular Netanyahu. Many still see in Lapid the most charismatic face in a field cluttered with less-than-electrifying leadership candidates.
Having been fired as finance chief two months ago, he now crisscrosses the country attacking Netanyahu with venom and confidence. But he's assailing every other major party too, suggesting that his camp alone is untainted by criminality and corruption. He uses dry humor to good effect.
"Listen to something amazing," Lapid tells the camera in his latest campaign ad. "Of all the big parties in the Knesset — Likud, Labor, Jewish Home, Shas, Yisrael Beitenu — we are the only party, the only one, where none of its leaders or members have ever been investigated, suspected of anything, detained, used the right to remain silent, been indicted or sat in prison. The only one. I can't believe I am listing this as an achievement."
Analysts and opinion polls suggest Yesh Atid is on course to retain only around 10 seats, still good leverage to join a potential coalition government with the current opposition leader, Labor's Isaac Herzog. Lurking in the back of Lapid's mind must be the fate of so many trendy centrist parties — including one founded by his own dad —that blossomed brightly and died just as quickly.
Lapid's father, former journalist Joseph "Tommy" Lapid, led Shinui to a surprise 15 seats in the 2003 election, but that party disintegrated within three years. The Kadima party, founded by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a centrist alternative to the stalwart Likud and Labor parties, attained power on its first try in 2006 but soon it too exited the stage.
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