{"id":429,"date":"2012-01-08T23:43:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T23:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/01\/israels-great-secular-hope.html"},"modified":"2012-01-08T23:43:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T23:43:00","slug":"israels-great-secular-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/01\/israels-great-secular-hope.html","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s Great Secular Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There is breaking news from Israel that I have been awaiting for a very, very long time.\u00a0 Yair Lapid, perhaps one of Israel\u2019s most trusted journalists, is leaving Channel 2 for a career in politics.<\/p>\n

Yair\u2019s father, Tommy Lapid<\/a>, followed a similar trajectory much later in life when he joined the Shinui (Change) Party in 1999 and led them to ultimately win 15 seats in 2003.\u00a0 Tommy Lapid, who was a Holocaust survivor and an atheist, was one of the most articulate antagonists of the Haredi camp.\u00a0 Yair wrote a biography of his father, framed as Tommy\u2019s posthumous \u201cautobiography,\u201d just after his father\u2019s death, called Memories After My Death<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0 I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n

Yair is expected to form his own party.\u00a0 From Haaretz<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Several recent surveys forecasted that a Lapid-led party could garner between 15 and 20 mandates in the Knesset.<\/p>\n

A recent poll stated that a party headed by Lapid would become the second largest party in the Knesset.<\/p>\n

According to the poll, if Lapid chooses to set up a new party, it would receive 15 Knesset seats in Israel\u2019s next elections, as opposed to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman\u2019s party, Yisrael Beiteinu, which would receive 14 seats. Likud would remain the largest party in the Knesset, with 24 seats, and the Labor Party would tie in second place with Lapid\u2019s party with 15 seats.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some Israeli politicians are so worried about him that they have already proposed (ridiculous) legislation calling for a \u201ccooling off\u201d period of two years before a journalist may enter electoral politics.\u00a0 Such legislation has almost no chance of passing.<\/p>\n

As Israel\u2019s culture war heats up, as it often does in the face of stalemates with the Palestinians, Yair Lapid may represent a great hope for secular Israelis to take their country back.\u00a0 Or, like so many before him, he may fall victim to the atrocious coalition compromising that is so prevalent in Israel.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is breaking news from Israel that I have been awaiting for a very, very long time.\u00a0 Yair Lapid, perhaps one of Israel\u2019s most trusted journalists, is leaving Channel 2 for a career in politics. Yair\u2019s father, Tommy Lapid, followed a similar trajectory much later in life when he joined the Shinui (Change) Party in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,13,20,31],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism","tag-haredim","tag-israel","tag-orthodox-judaism"],"yoast_head":"\nIsrael's Great Secular Hope<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is breaking news from Israel that I have been awaiting for a very, very long time.\u00a0 Yair Lapid, perhaps one of Israel\u2019s most trusted journalists, is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/01\/israels-great-secular-hope.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Israel's Great Secular Hope\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is breaking news from Israel that I have been awaiting for a very, very long time.\u00a0 Yair Lapid, perhaps one of Israel\u2019s most trusted journalists, is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/01\/israels-great-secular-hope.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-08T23:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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