Yair Lapid: Extremist Violence Is a ‘Stain on Israel’
Yair Lapid will become Israel’s prime minister on August 27, 2023, if things go according to plan—which, in Israeli politics, they almost never do. But when Lapid—the architect of Israel’s current coalition, its foreign minister, and the leader of its largest party—speaks, it matters. Most of the time, his job is to serve as the adult in the room, a sensible spokesperson for the country’s fractious and Frankensteinian government, which spans from secular leftists to settler rightists to Arab Islamists. But on occasion, he breaks from the script on a point of principle. This story is about one of those moments.
Earlier this month, I interviewed Lapid for my , asking him about Israeli democracy, Arab equality, and other core challenges facing the Jewish state. But one thing Lapid told me deserves special mention, because it speaks directly to a controversy that has recently exploded into public view and rattled the Israeli government: settler violence against Palestinians.
