On June 25, the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings hosted Member of Knesset Yair Lapid for an Alan and Jane Batkin International Leaders Forum. M.K. Lapid joined for a public conversation on his vision for Israel’s future. M.K. Lapid, the former finance minister of the State of Israel, discussed a wide-ranging set of issues confronting Israel today, from its position in the Golan Heights, its strategy toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, to the state U.S.-Israel alliance and bipartisan support for Israel in the United States.
A former journalist, television presenter, and author, Lapid founded the centrist Yesh Atid Party in 2012. The party garnered a surprising 19 seats in its first elections, and was the second largest party in the Knesset. Yesh Atid today polls as the main opposition challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.
This event is part of the center’s “Imagining Israel’s Future” series, which aims to help audiences in Washington engage with voices from across today’s dynamic Israeli society.
Questions from the audience followed the discussion.