Lapid on peace talks: 'Our role is to back the prime minister'

Exactly one month has passed since the chairman of the Yesh Atid Party, Minister of Finance Yair Lapid, took his involvement in the diplomatic process up a notch. Since then, the negotiations with the Palestinians have kept steady on his agenda. Lapid’s diplomatic frenzy began with a long post on his Facebook page on Dec. 8, in which he explained how critical a diplomatic agreement is for the Israeli economy. Later, he devoted entire speeches to his commitment to reaching an agreement with the Palestinians. On Jan. 6, he began his faction’s meeting by calling on the prime minister not to miss an opportunity to reach an arrangement, “which will enable us to separate from the Palestinians.”

Judging by the most recent polls, his increasing involvement with the diplomatic negotiations, which Lapid preferred to underplay at the start of his political career, has actually been good for him. A poll conducted by Israeli TV Channel 2 earlier this week gave his Yesh Atid Party 14 seats. This could indicate that the party’s long decline in the polls since the last election has finally been halted. While it is still five seats short of Lapid’s remarkable achievement in that election, it is good news for someone whose political eulogy had already been written.