Yair Lapid is a Tel Aviv-born center-left Israeli politician. He is the founder and chairman of the Yesh Atid political party.
Lapid served as the alternate Prime Minister to Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister in a 2021 coalition government. He had also previously served as Finance Minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government from 2013-2014.
Yair Lapid began his public career as a journalist and TV presenter, before branching out into politics in 2012 with the formation of Yesh Atid.
Criticisms of the Israeli prime minister fall flat when considering his military, economic, and diplomatic successes.
Lapid urged Israel to strengthen regional alliances with Saudi Arabia and the Abraham Accords nations to confront growing instability in the region.
“A fixated mind can make one believe black is white,” he explained.
“This government doesn't want balance, it wants media like in Hungary, like in Russia – restrained, frightened, submissive, shallow,” Lapid said.
"We must fulfill the ultimate imperative," the president emphasized, "to return Omer, and all our abducted men and women."
"This has been the perception of Netanyahu and his office all these years - that Hamas is not terrible," Lapid claimed.
Lapid criticized the silence of “spineless” Likud MKs, calling their inaction “a disgrace remembered forever.”
“If Netanyahu knew, he is complicit in one of the most serious security breaches in the law book," Lapid said.
When paired against Bennett, Netanyahu led with 38% suitability to Bennett’s 35%. Another 23% said neither candidate was suitable, and 4% were undecided.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman warned Iran will "continue its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, and continue supplying Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Shi'ite militias."
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