The Evolving identity of the State of Israel : Yigael Yadin and Yair Lapid

Picture of Lapid is courtesy of Haaretz

In 1977 Yigael Yadin changed the Israeli political landscape that has been dominated by the Likud and the Labor parties since the independence of the State in 1948.

Yigael Yadin, a former general, former Army Chief of Staff, formed a political party that won 15 seats in the Knesset. But Yadin did not play the card well, and by the following elections the party almost disappeared from the Israeli political scene.

The Prime Minister of Israel then was Menachem Begin, the former head of the Likud. Now, yesterday, a new comer, same like Yadin, to the political scene, Yair Lapid, and his party changed thirty six years later the political formula, by winning 19 seats of the knesset which could very well make him king maker of the next Israeli government.

Now, the Prime Minister is Bibi Netanyahu, the head of the Likud and the devout student of Menahem Begin and the conservative yet pragmatic school of politics in the State of Israel. Both Yadin and Lapid considered being on the left of the Likud and the religious parties, but both considered by many Israelis as progressive and practical and centrist.

Yair Lapid, the former broadcaster has broadcasted his message, and the Israeli society responded back and echoed his message and sent a strong signal against the reign of the religious parties.

The other strong message is peace with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and ending the stalemate in negotiations and move in the direction of establishing a State for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli voters message could not have been clearer; Bibi Netanyahu does not have a mandate but has a chance, a chance inside the State and outside the State in the neighbouring Gaza and the West Bank.

The move inside the Israel is to preserve the rights of women in religious sectors and against the humiliation of asking a woman to leave the bus or to sit at the end of the bus. And in managing better or withdrew government funds to religious schools and asking the religious apparatus to serve in the military like the rest of the society. The next Israeli government could be as vigorous as the 1977 government led by Menachem Begin.