Yair Lapid is currently unelected but serves as the 14th prime minister of the state of Israel, since July 1st, 2022. He is the alternate prime minister of the state of Israel and holds the minister of Foreign Affairs portfolio as well.
In one year, from 2021 to 2022, the coalition in which Lapid is a member did enormous damage to Israel’s image and harmed Israel’s foreign diplomacy standing.
As an outside observer, I question Lapid’s character and leadership intentions.
Lapid The IDF Soldier
By Israeli law, a military draft is mandatory. Men are expected to serve for a minimum of 32 months and women are expected to serve for a minimum of 24 months.
However, there are soldiers who serve to protect their homeland and there are others who are called “jobniks.” They serve because they have to serve the time but their contribution to the security of Israel is rather irrelevant.
Lapid’s military service was rather irrelevant. He spent most of his mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces as a military correspondent for the IDF’s weekly newspaper, Bamahaneh, meaning “In the base camp.”
Lapid The Journalist
Lapid is a former journalist who, since 1988, at age 25, engaged in journalism and other career adventures.
He started with being the editor of Yedioth Tel Aviv, a local newspaper published by the Yedioth Ahronoth media group. In 1991, he began writing a weekly column in the weekend supplement of the nationwide newspapers, first in Maariv newspaper and later for its competitor, Yedioth Ahronot newspaper.
In 1994, Lapid started his TV career; he first hosted a Friday evening talk show on Israel TV’s Channel 1; next he hosted a talk show on TV’s Channel 3; and in the 1990s, Lapid hosted a current affairs talk show, called “Yair Lapid” on TV’s Channel 2. Lapid was also the host of Ulpan Shishi (Friday Studio), TV’s Channel 2 Friday night news magazine.
Lapid also delved into writing and publishing books spanning a variety of genres from a thriller, to children’s books, novels, and a compilation of his newspaper columns.
Lapid’s other talent is songwriting. He wrote for numerous Israeli musicians. Some of his songs reached the top of the charts in Israel.
Engaging in film production, theatrical plays and amateur boxing were not foreign to Lapid’s range of work either.
Lapid’s Education
Lapid failed to complete his high school education. He attended the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium high school where he struggled with learning disabilities; he dropped out of school without earning Israel’s education “bagrut certificate,” equal to the Certificate of General Educational Development – GED Certificate – legally recognized in all US states as equivalent to the High School Matriculation Diploma.
Lapid’s Judaism
Lapid is a member of Reform-Progressive Judaism which is rather removed from orthodoxy Judaism. The Reform movement’s ideology leans toward policies that endanger Israel’s existence.
Lapid’s Wealth
In September 2013, Forbes magazine Israeli edition estimated Lapid’s net worth at 22 million shekels, which is approximately $6.2 million US dollars.
Lapid’s Political Views
Since Israel is forced to be in constant conflict with the Arabs one has to dive into what is Lapid’s political trajectory in general and with the Arabs in particular.
Lapid belongs to the political Left. He certainly would like to see the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel sit at the table and negotiate peace. But by now it is rather clear that the Arabs, named “Palestinians,” simply do not wish to pursue peace.
Lapid’s political party, Yesh Atid, which means, There Is a Future, stands on a 2013 platform that calls for an outline of “two states for two peoples.” This is a political idea that has failed miserably in every way shape or form.
However, Lapid also said that “We’re not looking for a happy marriage with the Arab-Palestinians, but for a divorce agreement we can live with.” How he would implement such a plan when all previous offers to the PA have failed is an enigma that belongs to the political banalities we often hear.
Since 1993, it has become abundantly clear that the Oslo Accords’ “two-state-solution” means the dissolution of the state of Israel. That was the viewpoint of Yasser Arafat when he signed the accords, while the unrealistic Israelis saw a colorful rainbow of peace in the skies.
It Appears That Lapid Is Also Anti-Zionism
Lapid, the pro tem prime minister, does not rule out having Arab members of Israel’s Knesset Ahmad Tibi and Ayman Odeh as government coalition partners.
The Arabs who he calls to be part of his coalition, should he be elected prime minister, are anti-Zionists and also anti-Semites, Israel/Jew haters.
Zionism means the right of Jews to self-determination in their ancestral homeland Israel. According to IHRA’s (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) non-legally binding working broad definition of Antisemitism bullet points, if you deny the Jews their right to self-determination, which is the definition of Zionism, you are engaged in Antisemitism. Therefore, calling for anti Zionism-anti-Semites to join his government makes Lapid an anti-Zionist.
But Lapid is clueless on this viewpoint as well.
So that is the background summary of the man who is currently at the helm of the state of Israel and for the past few months, until the upcoming November 1, 2022 election date.
Digging Deeper
A video, in Hebrew, by Middle East pundit Dr. Mordechai Kedar, contains a podcast recording prior to Lapid’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), on September 22, 2022. Dr. Kedar is clear: a two-state-solution means the destruction of the state of Israel.
In his UNGA speech, Lapid called for the failed “two-state-solution” to come up from its grave and thus he called for the destruction of Israel.
After Lapid called for the revival of the two state [dis]solution, he was followed by Mahmoud Abbas, the PA Rais (Muslim chief or leader). Abbas spoke in reply to Lapid’s UNGA speech.
Blatantly translating Abbas’s 47 minutes of hate Israel, lies and deception speech, cajoling to those who listened to him, I heard him say “screw you Jew, you occupy my land, get off our land, it is ALL OURS you ‘apartheiders!'”
Abbas’s speech was just a vile repetition of the very same speech, with the same content that he delivers, year after year, at the UNGA.
Lowlife UN Dictators and Human Butchers Get to Speak
Since Iran’s 1979 revolution, the Iranian regime has been calling for the destruction of Israel. They also call the United States “The Big Satan,” and Israel “The Small Satan,” but satanic they are, according to that evil regime.
But in the halls of the United Nations, even Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, known as “the Butcher of Tehran“ and Holocaust Denier and “pay for slay Jews” maser Mahmoud Abbas can freely spread their propaganda.
On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke at the UN General Assembly and Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, carrying Israel’s dignity on his shoulders, walked out of the hall in protest. The ambassador did not want to hear the human butcher speak, calling for another Holocaust, and the destruction of Israel and the US. Strangely, some do.
And Erdan had this to say, “It is a new moral low for the UN. A mass-murderer, Holocaust-denier gets the podium at the UN to spew his hatred. Every ambassador that stays to hear him should be embarrassed.” Indeed when a man such as Raisi gets a visa to enter the United States, gets to stay at a posh hotel in Manhattan, New York, and is interviewed by Lesley Stahl of CBS “60 Minutes” it certainly represents a “new low” for the US and the world body UN. To host Raisi and allow him to address the assembly, with his record on human rights abuses and Holocaust denial makes a mockery of the United Nations.
Sadly, by allowing Raisi to speak at the General Assembly, the US and the UN gave a green light to legitimize Iran and its threats and its nefarious activities against Israel as well as the world.
As I See Yair Lapid
Yair Lapid is a loose tongue, reckless, political opportunist, complete with hubris. He is what you call in Hebrew “a schwitezer,” meaning conceited and boastful. He is also a foolish politician and it is hard to see what the people who voted for him saw in him and made them identify with him.
Anyone who voted for Naftali Bennett ushered Yair Lapid into premiership. The two are clearly empty suit, thoughtless politicians.
In his podcast recording Dr. Kedar clearly claims that Lapid’s support for the two-state-solution plan will destroy the State of Israel. But in my humble opinion, this plan was given birth by morons like Shimon Peres, Yitzchak Rabin, Yossi Beilin, and the rest of the clueless, reckless, peaceniks. They, like Lapid, saw the peace rainbow in the skies, not the ingathering storm.
Mind you, former Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not perform any firmer on this issue. Unfortunately, he conducted 10 years of construction freeze moratorium policy and operated under the belief that Israel was building in the LIBERATED areas of Yehuda and Shomron (Judea and Samaria); however, he put an Everest height of bureaucratic obstacles in front of every Jew who wanted to settle in the liberated areas or build a new community there.
That unwise policy continues unmitigated.
And this daft policy of preventing Jews from settling anywhere in Judea and Samaria has been and is carried out till today while the Arabs are building illegally anywhere and everywhere there, with impunity. And the Jews are handcuffed by the authorities who choose not to act or even remove the Arabs from where they have put a “foot on the ground.”
Yair Lapid is definitely a writer, not a fighter. He is not and will not fight for the state, the land, or the security of Israel or its people. Why would anyone want him to be Prime Minister?
New Approach Must Be Taken
In the post-truth age of the 21st century when so many lies proliferate through social media, with propaganda and active disinformation, the name of the 1967 Six Day War needs a change of name, to reflect the truth. The six-day war liberated the Jewish people’s ancestral land from the yoke of its illegal occupier, Jordan. It should be changed to, “Six Day War Liberating Yehuda and Shomron.”
And the Oslo Accords must be declared a sham, and nixed, nulled and voided. The Oslo Accords were a mistake that must be corrected.
Because the difference between truth and lies can be the difference between life and death of the state of Israel.
