Lapid’s long march from un-credentialed outsider to big man of the left has ushered in the Israeli left’s third incarnation

The evening of April 9, 2019, is one Yair Lapid will never forget.

They stood side by side, the four leaders of the fledgling Blue and White party: Benny Gantz, Gabi Ashkenazi, Boogie Yaalon, and he. Three tall, rugged generals and one short, dynamic TV presenter. The quartet celebrated with a group hug after the dramatic exit poll results: Formed less than two months before, the Blue and White party was projected to win 37 seats, well ahead of the Likud.

The mood in the room was electric, overexcited activists breaking into round after round of cheers. Alas, it was not to last. When the actual results started pouring in, it became clear that the exit polls had missed big time and Netanyahu was headed to a fifth term as prime minister (or was he?). But for two glorious hours, the Blue and White HQs were on top of the world.

The party’s candidate for prime minister, former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, declared victory to deafening applause. Towering above the audience, he fixed his striking blue eyes on the cameras with his best “statesmanlike” expression, just as expected from the man who was about to replace Binyamin Netanyahu after an uninterrupted decade in power. This was it — the mission was a success.

Everyone cheered, and only Yair Lapid felt that something was missing.

It belongs to someone else, Lapid thought. It belongs to me.

“Not yet,” he reminded himself, in it for the long haul. “Your time will come, Yair.”

In accounts of Israel’s fifth election in four years, Netanyahu’s dramatic comeback looms large.

Less noticed is another story: the near burial of Israel’s historic left, and Yair Lapid’s role as unofficial undertaker at the funeral.

The 25th Knesset will be the first without Meretz representation since the party’s founding in 1992. The Labor Party, which ruled the country for three decades and left a deeper mark on the country than any other party, squeaked over the threshold. For the first time in the history of the state, only four of the Knesset’s 120 seats will be held by the old left.

Whether through foresight or miscalculation, Lapid’s long march from un-credentialed outsider to big man of the left has ushered in the Israeli left’s third incarnation.