Knesset (Res.) Colonel: 'We Can Withstand' the Syrian Threat
Israel is threatened more by diplomatic deadlock than by Syrian jihadists, says Knesset member Col. (res.) Omer Bar-Lev of the Labor Party.
![Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid party, speaks to the media in Tel Aviv Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid (There's a Future) party, speaks to members of the media outside his home in Tel Aviv January 23, 2013. Lapid, a former television news anchor whose new centrist party stormed to second place in Israel's election, may well be the kingmaker holding the keys to the next coalition government. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR3CUU2](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2013/05/1-RTR3CUU2.jpg/1-RTR3CUU2.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=XnYAqa8L)
“Finance Minister Yair Lapid is turning out to be a shocking right-wing conservative,” says Knesset member Omer Bar-Lev of the Labor Party, analyzing the finance minister’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as expressed in an interview he granted The New York Times. The interview, in which Lapid addressed diplomatic issues, was published this week [May 19] and quoted extensively by the Israeli media.
Bar-Lev is a reserve colonel, a former commander of the IDF Sayertet Matkal elite unit and the son of the IDF’s eighth chief of staff, Haim Bar-Lev. He thinks that behind Lapid the politician, who won significant support from the center-left, hides a “[Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] ‘Bibi clone,’ who is now showing his true face.”