Yair Lapid, a former journalist is the new rising star of the Israeli politics. He had a talk show which was  popular among the younger Israelis and dealt with the real life issues. His father Tommy Lapid was also a politician and Yair says that his father was the main person who motivated him to get involved into the politics and try to make a difference. Yair hit the Israeli nerves when he started the platform which concentrated on things that the Israelis always considered a taboo to talk about or discuss, for example, he favors military service for the orthodox Jews, who at present do not serve in the military and feel that if they join the military, it would compel them to serve in the Palestinian territories and the Jewish religion prohibits occupying lands belonging to others and exploiting other people.Yair has attracted a broad spectrum of Israelis from those longing for peace and expediting the peace process with Palestinians to those who favor to annex west bank and absorb the current lands inhabited by the Palestinians and expelling them to Jordan. A lot of so called brown Jews, the Jews from Arab countries, and Africa, also joined him and voted for him in overwhelming numbers.Netanyahu who ran on an extremist platform of not negotiating with the Palestinians did not fair so well in this election. Israelis seem to have been tired of his extreme right wing positions, though he remains the front runner with the largest block of seats in the Parliament. Naftali Bennet’s party which believes in fascism also won 11 seats which surprised a lot of people. Bennets positions are extreme right wing and favor expulsion of all Palestinians and annexing their land. Yair Lapid has 19 seats and he could turn out to be the king maker.  Yair is the new face to emerge in Israeli politics whose policies according to the U.S. officials are moderate and he could be counted on to push for peace talks with Palestinians and resolve this longstanding issue. Yair has worked as a journalist, as a book writer, including thrillers and is well liked across all spectrum of the Israeli politics. It is expected that he has a bright political career ahead of him.  

Author Name : Zafar Sheikh