Lapid sticks to high ground en route to Israeli elections
The calm and unprovocative demeanor of Prime Minister Yair Lapid is earning him growing support within the Israeli electorate.
With just six weeks left before the Nov. 1 elections, Prime Minister Yair Lapid is calm. His campaign consists simply of working very hard, day and night, at his post. He avoids getting dragged into mudslinging and exudes an aura of dignity and responsibility.
Unlike his predecessor Naftali Bennett, Lapid has been climbing slowly but surely in the polls in the three months since he became Israel’s caretaker prime minister.
On the eve of his takeover in late June, Lapid's Yesh Atid party was polling at 17 Knesset seats, the same number it garnered in last year’s elections. These days, the polls are giving him 23 to 25 seats. “If this is our non-campaign, who needs a campaign?” one of the prime minister’s top aides commented to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “Let us hope this is exactly how our non-campaign continues.”
Last week, Lapid flew to Berlin, taking with him five Holocaust survivors. Lapid is at his very best at such events, himself the son of a prominent survivor (the late politician and pundit Yosef “Tommy” Lapid). He also brought back a declaration of support by Chancellor Olaf Scholz for Israel’s policy on the Iran nuclear issue and progress on billions of dollars in potential German defense acquisitions from Israel.
