Taking Candy From A Bibi

Yair Lapid, Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief rival, spoke to Newsweek about peace with the Palestinians and the future of Israel

- Jack Moore

THREE YEARS AGO, YAIR LAPID WAS A centrist Israeli politician working as Benjamin Netanyahu’s finance minister. Today, he is a key witness in the corruption probe dogging the prime minister. He’s also Netanyahu’s chief rival in the 2019 elections. If they were held tomorrow, pollsters say, Lapid’s centrist party, Yesh Atid—which means “There is a future”—could win several more seats than Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party, though Lapid would have to form a coalition from within a weak and crowded opposition.

Then again, Netanyahu is under significant pressure. On February 13, the Israeli police recommended the country’s attorney general indict him on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The same evening, Lapid confirmed Israeli press reports that he had been crucial to that explosive recommendation. He served as a key witness in one of the four bribery probes involving Netanyahu.

In that case, prosecutors allege that Netanyahu tried to push a law through Lapid’s Finance Ministry that would have provided tax breaks to a billionaire associate—Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan—who had given the Netanyahu family some 750,000 shekels ($218,000) in lavish gifts. (Lapid says he refused to pass the law, despite pressure from Netanyahu.)

“Like any law-abiding citizen who is asked by the police to help them get to the truth, I went and answered all their questions,” Lapid said in a statement on February 14. He described it as a “sad day” when an Israeli leader is accused of criminal offenses, and he has publicly called for Bibi to step aside.