Eight months ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Yair Lapid from the job of finance minister, instantly turning him into one of his biggest critics and rivals in Israeli politics. Today, with 11 seats in the opposition and after losing nearly half of his political power in the March 17 election, Lapid has nonetheless succeeded in setting the agenda and achieving media prominence even in the international arena — all part of a strategic plan with the goal of running for prime minister in the next election. He hopes that at that point he would have enough right-wing voters backing him to enable him to form the next government. 

Lapid has been working hard to deepen his involvement in diplomatic and security affairs, in order to close what the public perceives as a gap in experience and seniority as compared to Netanyahu. Last week, he published a remarkably patriotic column in the Italian Corriere della Sera and the German Die Welt, where he attacked Iran and didn’t mention Netanyahu, even though he’s one of the leaders of the opposition. “They just signed the agreement and the world is rushing to do business with Iran, which funds terrorism, stones women and hangs gays. And you threaten us with a boycott? Is the world crazy?” In the meantime, internal polls conducted by the political parties indicate that Lapid is making the right moves.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, the chairman of Yesh Atid explains why the nuclear agreement with Iran is bad and how he differs from Netanyahu. He also discusses his responsibility, as someone who was still a member of the Cabinet eight months ago, for the failure to prevent the agreement and for the deterioration of Israel's relationship with the United States.

Al-Monitor:  You, Netanyahu and the chairman of the Zionist Camp, Isaac Herzog, sound like a single chorus when it comes to the agreement with Iran. Is there nothing positive about this agreement?