Israeli Media personality-turned-politician Yair Lapid revealed a few of his political views on Thursday, indicating during a Facebook exchange that he opposed the division of Jerusalem and describing the capital as “more than just a place.”
“Jerusalem belongs to the people of Israel and not to anyone else,” Lapid wrote.
When one Facebook user asked the former Channel 2 anchorman to give a straight answer to the question and “not a politician’s [response],” Lapid responded, “I’m for common sense – the politicians can go on evading.”
“As a citizen, I can tell you Jerusalem is not just a place to me, but it’s my history and national ethos as well, and I think it belongs to the people of Israel and not to anyone else,” Lapid wrote.
Although wary about detailing his views to the media, Lapid has been quite active in expressing them on his Facebook page recently.
Last month, the budding politician promised “to fight the fight of the Israeli middle class with three tools: by changing the system of government; by abrogating the Tal Law [which regulates ultra-Orthodox army draft deferrals and exemptions] and replacing it with a state national-service agency; and by waging an uncompromising war against vested interest groups, sector-based parties and tycoons, to change the distribution of resources.”
Also last month, Lapid held a conference in the upscale, centrally-located community of Maccabim-Reut.
He told his audience there that he would never join Kadima, adding, “Just look at them.” Later, on his Facebook wall, he called the party’s lawmakers “a gang of cynical rejects from other parties who don’t have a clue about what, if anything, they believe, and there’s no way, no scenario in which I would join them.”
Also on Facebook, Lapid wrote that the Labor Party had “moved all the way to the radical left,” in terms of both social policy and its policy regarding the Palestinians.
At the event in Maccabim-Reut, Lapid attacked Labor chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich personally, accusing her of being unfair to him. “She knows the truth but insisted on attacking me and claimed that [former Prime Minister] Ehud Olmert was my political consultant,” he said.
{Haaretz/Matzav.com Newscenter}
Mr. Lapid, what makes you say that Yerushalayim belongs to the Jews? The Torah, huh? The same Torah says that ALL OF ISRAEL belongs to the Jews.
“a gang of cynical rejects … who dont have a clue about what, if anything, they believe” What exactly do you believe, Mr. Lapid? YOu’re just like your father – a bitter self-hating Jew.
Let’s wait and see what the man does. He’s not necessarily a clone of his father. He’s a different generation with a different experience. And considering the current level of hypocrisy and corruption in Israeli politics, almost anyone would seem to be an improvement. At least he isn’t being indicted for any financial scandals – maybe because he’s never been in office yet? Let’s see if he manages to keep his own hands clean. It would be nice to see someone who actually does what he says everybody else should do.