Yair Lapid

Yair Lapid (Hebrew: יָאִיר לַפִּיד, born 5 November 1963) is an Israeli politician, actor, journalist, author, former TV presenter and news anchor. He is founder and chair of Yesh Atid, which became the second largest party in the Knesset after the 2013 elections.

Biography

Yair Lapid, born in Tel Aviv, is the son of journalist and politician Yosef "Tommy" Lapid and author Shulamit Lapid. He is married to journalist Lihi Lapid and lives in Ramat Aviv Gimmel. Lapid has three children.

Journalism and media career

Yair Lapid in Jacob Goldwasser's 1991 film "Beyond the Sea"

Lapid started his journalism career as a military correspondent for the IDF's weekly magazine, Ba-Mahaneh ("In the Camp"). He also wrote for the mainstream daily Maariv. In 1988, he was appointed editor of the Tel Aviv local newspaper published by the Yedioth Ahronoth group. In 1991, he began writing a weekly column in a nationwide newspaper's weekend supplement, at first for Maariv and later on for its competitor, Yedioth Ahronoth. His column, called "Where's the Money?", became his slogan in seeking political office.

In 1994, he began hosting the leading Friday evening talk show on Israel TV's Channel 1, and in that same year had an acting role in an Israeli film, “Song of The Siren.” He hosted a talk show on TV's Channel 3, and since 1999 has hosted a talk show on Channel 2. He has published seven books and written a drama series called “War Room” that was aired on Channel 2 in 2004.

In 2005, Lapid was voted the 36th-greatest Israeli of all time in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet.

In January 2008, Lapid was the host of Ulpan Shishi ["Friday Studio"], the Friday night news-magazine of Channel 2. That year, his first play, The Right Age for Love, was performed by the Cameri Theater.

Political career

On 8 January 2012 Lapid announced that he would be leaving his journalism career in order to enter politics. On 30 April 2012 Lapid formally registered his party, "Yesh Atid" (Hebrew: יש עתיד, lit. "There's a Future"). The move was aimed to coincide with the general expectation in Israel for early elections to be held in the early fall of 2012.

A few days after Yesh Atid's registration, in a surprise move, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a national unity government. It was then thought that Lapid's party would have to wait until late 2013 before it could participate in national elections. But in October 2012, following the departure of Kadima from Netanyahu's coalition over how to implement a Supreme Court decision ending the exemption from the military draft for the ultra-Orthodox, Netanyahu announced that elections would take place in late January 2013, affording Yesh Atid its first opportunity to run since its formation. In November 2012, Yesh Atid was polling an average of 11.6%, or 13-14 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The final results of the January election showed the party winning an unexpected 19 seats, making Yesh Atid the second-largest party in the 19th Knesset.

Views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Lapid said that he will demand a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. His party's platform calls for an outline of "two states for two peoples", while maintaining the large Israeli settlement blocs and ensuring the safety of Israel. In January 2013, just days before the election, Lapid was reported to have said "I do not think that the Arabs want peace, I want to be rid of them and put a tall fence between us and them, to maintain a Jewish majority in the Land of Israel.", however, no source can be found on Facebook and it seems that this may have been retracted or never written since it is not in keeping with the Yesh Atid's core beliefs.

Published works

• The Double Head: thriller (1989)
• Yoav's Shadow: children's book (1992)
• One-Man Play: novel (1993)
• Elbi – A Knight's Story: children's book (1998)
• The Sixth Riddle: thriller (2001)
• Standing in a Row: collection of newspaper columns (2005)
• The Second Woman: thriller (2006)
• Sunset in Moscow: thriller (2007)
• Memories After My Death: novel (2010)

External links

• Official website
• Yair Lapid on the Knesset website
• Yair Lapid at IMDb
• Lapid in his talk show on Arutz 2
• Israeli Known Host Talk About His Dad by Ynetnews
• A letter to the British academic (related to BUCU's call for an academic boycott of Israel)
• Yair Lapid speaks at Kiryat Ono College (Lapid's views on the Israeli religious community - English subtitles)
• Yair Lapid: Israel's new political star