After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu focused his Oct. 1 UN speech on the Iranian nuclear program and pushed aside the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Finance Minister Yair Lapid came to Washington and made it clear that negotiations with the Palestinians are the top priority of his diplomatic agenda.

Speaking at the Washington Institute Oct. 10, Lapid explained to the audience that negotiations with the Palestinian Authority are far more important, as far as he’s concerned, and the results will influence the fate of Israelis much more so than the Iranian threat. He was careful not to openly criticize Netanyahu and not to lay bare their disagreements, but just as he declared Sept. 17 that he was hearing new sounds coming from Tehran, in his speech this week he differed from the prime minister. Netanyahu, for his part, did not hold back. According to Israeli media reports, he said Lapid was expressing “the views of the left, which leave open the possibility of a continued Palestinian struggle.”

“The Israeli-Palestinian issue is the key,” the finance minister told his Washington audience, seeking to convey an air of optimism. Lapid, who has made no secret of his intention to run in the future for the position of prime minister, knows the road to the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem must also pass through the White House, not far from where he delivered his speech.

Now that an American attack on Syria is off the table and attempts are being made to promote a diplomatic solution to the Iranian issue, the subject that remains unresolved is the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Most of the diplomatic effort will be invested from now on in this channel. Lapid knows this well and is raising the negotiating flag even higher than the head of the Israeli negotiating team, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni. In a conversation with Al-Monitor, he sounded more conciliatory in his attitude toward negotiations with Iran, too.