“I chose to talk today about the topic that will have the most decisive impact on the economy of Israel and on Israeli society: the diplomatic process.” This was the opening line of a post Minister of Finance Yair Lapid published on his popular Facebook page on Dec. 8. In the text, which is no less than 1,500 words long, he explained the economic and other damages that Israel will incur in the absence of a diplomatic process, the threat such a situation would pose to the Jewish state — the annexation of 3.5 million Palestinians — and why he would back the prime minister and support a change in the coalition setup if that will be necessary.
This is one of the longest posts Lapid has written since he entered the government, and the only one dealing from beginning to end with the diplomatic process and the role of his party, Yesh Atid, in advancing the issue. Since the election campaign a year ago, Lapid has kept his distance from the Palestinian question, and when he did speak out on the topic he sounded like one of the members of the Likud's extreme right wing.
