New Israeli political star champions middle- class

JERUSALEM — Yair Lapid, the charismatic former news anchor whose meteoric rise in Israel’s election Tuesday has made him the key to the country’s next ruling coalition, rode to success by tapping into a wave of social discontent that could define the agenda of the next Israeli government.

Lapid favors a return to negotiations with the Palestinians, but that was not what won him votes. His electoral appeal stemmed mostly from his image as a champion of Israel’s struggling middle class. The focus of his centrist party’s campaign was what many secular Israelis see as the inequity of exempting tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews from the draft so they can pursue religious studies with government stipends.

(The Washington Post/Source: Staff reports) - Israel’s parliamentary election results

Latest stories from Foreign

Before it falls through ice, Arctic research camp to close

Will Englund

Russian drift station threatened by rapid melt in Arctic Sea.

Moscow says Syrian government agrees ‘in principle’ to join talks

Will Englund and Loveday Morris

The Syrian Opposition Coalition is skeptical about the announcement, cites its ‘lack of clarity.’

Bombs, gunfire rock Afghan capital

Pamela Constable

Afghan police and insurgents wage a gun battle in a Kabul district that includes key government buildings.

Turkish trade undeterred by detours

Kevin Sullivan

Instead of crossing Syria, Turkey’s truckers now sail around it, driving home an age-old truth: In war, commerce improvises.

• WorldViews: Improvising in a time of war

In Britain, Cameron faces conservative backlash

Anthony Faiola

After building a coalition by embracing liberal social issues, prime minister is challenged from the right.

Lapid’s party, Yesh Atid, which won 19 seats and unexpectedly became the second largest in Israel’s next parliament, owes its success to people like Efrat Shemesh. The 35-year-old teacher and mother of three said she had voted for Lapid in the hope that he would “weigh in on social issues” in the next administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We want a better future for our children, affordable housing and better education,” she said. “And too much is going to the ultra-Orthodox at the expense of secular people.”

Her complaints are shared by many Israelis, for whom worries about making ends meet — not peace with the Palestinians — were a decisive factor in a vote that carried echoes of the social justice protests that swept Israel 1¹ / ₂ years ago.

Lapid, a 49-year-old former newspaper columnist and host of TV talk shows and news programs, has followed in the footsteps of his father, Yosef Lapid, a journalist who entered politics at the head of the staunchly secular Shinui party, leading it to electoral success and joining the government of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The younger Lapid established Yesh Atid, or There Is a Future, just nine months ago and quickly built a following among mostly secular Israelis drawn to his plainspoken messages.

In a typical pitch in one of his TV ads, Lapid’s image was projected upside-down as he announced that “everything is backward.”

“Those who serve in the army are not taken care of, while those who don’t serve are given money. Isn’t that backward?” Lapid said. “Those who pay the most taxes get the least education from the state. It’s all backward. The middle class, those who work the hardest, will never be able to buy an apartment. Those who don’t work get apartments at half-price. I’m telling you, it’s backward. So I ask, isn’t it about time to turn things around?”

Although he has put domestic issues first, Lapid says Israel cannot allow a continued impasse in peace efforts, and he suggests that they should be revived along the lines of previous Israeli proposals.

He favors a return to talks with the Palestinians to reach a two-state solution to the conflict but says the deal should leave large Jewish settlements in the West Bank under Israel’s sovereignty, with possible land swaps. To drive that point home, he launched his election campaign in Ariel, a large settlement town deep in the northern West Bank.