Yair Lapid dismantled his life’s work with his own hands

Thirteen years after founding Yesh Atid, Yair Lapid sat down with a sheet of paper and crossed out the names of almost 20 sitting lawmakers. In one move, he ended the political careers of parliamentarians who had begun the latest Knesset term at his side.

Among those removed from the slate were Karine Elharrar, Mickey Levy, Michal Shir, Moshe Turpaz, Shelly Tal Meron and Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu. The article stresses that these were not mere political placeholders. Many were described as strong parliamentarians who could have sustained the faction when it still commanded 24 seats after the November 2022 election.

Some lawmakers found other routes. Former police commander Yoav Segalovitz moved to the slate of the Arab Islamist Ra’am party, while Elazar Stern joined Gadi Eisenkot’s newly formed Yashar. Others left politics disappointed. Lapid has presented the departures as amicable and necessary “generational change”, but the article argues that this explanation looks different to those whose careers were cut short.

The purge came as Yesh Atid entered a desperate merger with former prime minister Naftali Bennett. On their joint B’Yachad slate, Lapid’s party has been reduced to six or seven realistic positions, according to the article. Yesh Atid’s decline, it says, reflects Lapid’s inability to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even after the trauma of October 7, as well as his decision not to join an emergency unity government that included far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

The result has been deep public disillusionment and a slide toward Israel’s 3.25% electoral threshold. Ram Ben Barak identified the refusal to enter the unity government as the point when the downward spiral began, although the article notes that other political explanations also exist. Its central image remains Lapid striking names from the list he built himself.

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generational change