Yair Lapid: Israel's Minister For Facebook Affairs
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid is busy writing amusing feuilletons on his Facebook page, writes Mazal Mualem, revealing his lack of understanding of the true needs of the country's middle class.
“During that dinner, I was photographed again with President Barack Obama, who is 1.90 meters [6 foot, 3 inches] tall. Afterward, with Secretary of State John Kerry, who is about two meters [6 foot, 7 inches] tall. Afterward, I stood on the side with Trade and Industry Minister Naftali Bennett who, like me, doesn’t reach 1.75 meters [5 foot, 9 inches], even when standing on a footstool and wearing heels. At a certain stage, the new beauty queen, Miss Israel Titi Aynaw, approached us with a large, enchanting smile on her face; incidentally, the 1.82-meter [almost 6 foot] beauty was wearing especially high heels. 'Brother,' I whispered to Bennett, “Don’t give in. Even if she asks us, we’re not going to be photographed with her.'”
This is a section from a Facebook post of Finance Minister Yair Lapid on March 23, including an excellent feuilleton describing his first days as minister. In that same post, Lapid describes the war of the ministers to sit next to the prime minister, in their desperate attempts to be photographed:
“My place is exactly opposite the prime minister, between Defense Minister Bogie Ya’alon and Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni. Later on, I learned that an entire struggle is waged over seats, mainly over sitting as close as possible to the prime minister. Why? Because the person sitting next to him, is also filmed for TV at the beginning of the meeting. I don’t really care, I have been on television enough in my life and it suits me to sit opposite him.”
In this amusing description, Lapid succeeds in telling a joke at the expense of ministers, while also flattering himself in his incidental, nonchalant manner.
