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Israel’s Bennett and Lapid partners, but still rivals

Behind the seemingly idyllic partnership between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid, tensions are seething and competition is already on its way.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (R) speaks to Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Aug. 8, 2021.

Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid flew to Morocco Aug. 11 to attend the reopening of Israel’s mission there. Since then, he has posted an almost endless stream of touching photos and texts to mark the historic occasion. He seems to have captured everything, from boarding the plane to landing in Rabat, and from the official reception that he received to the signing of new cooperation agreements between the two countries. Lapid ended his successful first day in Morocco with a video clip featuring him. It had all the markings of a promotional video, with all his best photos and selections from his speeches about the importance of peace, set to upbeat music.

There was, however, one thing missing from Lapid’s social media feed on that historic day. There was no mention of the coronavirus, even though the devastating fourth wave has begun to claim more victims in Israel. There was not even any mention of the enormous strain on the country’s hospitals. Then again, there was no mention of the coronavirus in Lapid’s online accounts in the days leading up to his Moroccan adventure. Instead, he congratulated Olympic gold medalist Linoy Ashram and reported that Israel sent airplanes to Greece to help fight the forest fires ravaging the country.

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