He was a popular television host, journalist, actor and songwriter….
Yair Lapid adds Prime Minister to his resume…..
He leads a caretaker Israeli government until November….
The bargining for a permeant government coalition now begins….
By the time he finally stepped into the coveted office at midnight on Thursday, albeit as the prime minister of a caretaker government following the collapse of the ruling coalition, he had grown considerably in experience and public stature.
As the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid, or There is a Future, party, now Israel’s second largest after Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud, Mr. Lapid, 58, has since served in government as a minister of finance, strategic affairs, foreign affairs and as an alternate prime minister, along with a stint as the leader of the opposition.
“Once in politics he learned the business quite quickly,” Nahum Barnea, a veteran Israeli political columnist for the popular Yediot Ahronot newspaper, said in an interview.
Mr. Lapid is expected to remain in charge until an election scheduled for Nov. 1 and for some weeks or months after it, as the parties typically require lengthy negotiations to put together a new coalition.
While many new parties in Israel have risen and fallen from fashion within one election cycle, Mr. Lapid succeeded in building a party with a strong infrastructure and an army of volunteer foot soldiers….
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Mr. Lapid, who lacks the security credentials that have eased the paths of other Israelis into power, understood that the agreement was harming Blue and White’s chances.
More striking was what happened after the March 2021 election, the fourth inconclusive ballot to be held within two years, as Mr. Netanyahu repeatedly tried to cling to power despite being on trial for corruption.
Mr. Netanyahu again failed to cobble together a majority and as a result, Mr. Lapid, the runner-up, was given the opportunity to form a government. He succeeded in assembling an ideologically diverse coalition of eight parties with a razor-thin majority…..
image….Credit…Oliver Weiken/European Pressphoto Agency