TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – 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.