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Yair Lapid, the chairman of the Yesh Atid Party, stood with supporters as he visited a polling station in Netanya, Israel,
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Well, this is unexpected. Early results on Tuesday from Israel’s election showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing party lost a quarter of its seats in government, and while he is likely to serve a third term he will be forced to form a coalition government with the newly formed Yesh Atid party. Netanyahu’s Likud-Beiteinu alliance still maintained the largest majority, with 31 seats, but Yesh Atid won a shocking 19 seats. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is likely to serve a third termYesh Atid is led by popular former TV presenter Yair Lapid, and has demanded reform of the law that excuses ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students from serving in the military. Lapid’s victory could also cause other headaches for Netanyahu, as Lapid has insisted he will only join a government committed to reviving the peace process with Palestine.
With his good looks and suave manner, Yair Lapid had long been a celebrity and symbol of success here, building a strong following as a prominent journalist and the host of a popular television show. But by the time the polls closed here Tuesday, it was clear that Mr. Lapid had reinvented himself as one of the most powerful political leaders in the country, leveraging his celebrity and a populist message that resonated.
Mr. Lapid, 49, was the surprise of the Israeli election. His party placed second, when polls said it would come in fourth. He had predicted that he would do better with his outreach to the middle class and his emphasis on social justice and the rising inequalities in society. He was right. His centrist Yesh Atid Party won 19 seats in the 120-seat Parliament, according to preliminary results, positioning Mr. Lapid as the chief power broker in the formation of the next governing coalition.
His father was a Holocaust survivor who went on to serve as justice minister. His mother is a well-known novelist. A year ago, when Mr. Lapid decided to quit television and enter politics, he set himself the mission of representing the country’s struggling middle class, a long-neglected constituency. He presented a common appeal, refreshing for an Israeli politician. As the author of a widely read column in the weekend supplement of the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, he wrote a column under a title that became his catchphrase: “Where’s the money?”
He wrote: “This is the big question asked by Israel’s middle class, the same sector on whose behalf I am going into politics. Where’s the money? Why is it that the productive sector, which pays taxes, fulfills its obligations, performs reserve duty and carries the entire country on its back, doesn’t see the money?”
Mr. Lapid harnessed the frustration of hundreds of thousands of Israelis who took to the streets in the social-justice protests of the summer of 2011. When he founded Yesh Atid (There Is a Future) the next spring, he adopted and sharpened the popular demands for a more equal sharing of the burden, meaning an end to automatic military exemptions for thousands of ultra-Orthodox students who opt for full-time Torah study, as well as demands for better public education and an end to rising taxes that choke the middle class.