Yair Lapid: Jerusalem belongs only to the people of Israel
The budding politician, who has been slow to expose his views in the media,
has become more forthcoming recently on his Facebook page.
By Ophir Bar-Zohar Haaretz Published 15:10 02.02.12
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/yair-lapid-jerusalem-belongs-only-to-the-people-of-israel-1.410642

Media personality-turned-politician Yair Lapid revealed a few of his
political views on Thursday, indicating during a Facebook exchange that he
opposed the division of Jerusalem and describing the capital as "more than
just a place."

"Jerusalem belongs to the people of Israel and not to anyone else," Lapid
wrote.

When one Facebook user asked the former Channel 2 anchorman to give a
straight answer to the question and "not a politician's [response]," Lapid
responded, "I'm for common sense – the politicians can go on evading."

"As a citizen, I can tell you Jerusalem is not just a place to me, but it's
my history and national ethos as well, and I think it belongs to the people
of Israel and not to anyone else," Lapid wrote.

Although wary about detailing his views to the media, Lapid has been quite
active in expressing them on his Facebook page recently.

Last month, the budding politician promised "to fight the fight of the
Israeli middle class with three tools: by changing the system of government;
by abrogating the Tal Law [which regulates ultra-Orthodox army draft
deferrals and exemptions] and replacing it with a state national-service
agency; and by waging an uncompromising war against vested interest groups,
sector-based parties and tycoons, to change the distribution of resources."

Also last month, Lapid held a conference in the upscale, centrally-located
community of Maccabim-Reut.

He told his audience there that he would never join Kadima, adding, "Just
look at them." Later, on his Facebook wall, he called the party's lawmakers
"a gang of cynical rejects from other parties who don't have a clue about
what, if anything, they believe, and there's no way, no scenario in which I
would join them."

Also on Facebook, Lapid wrote that the Labor Party had "moved all the way to
the radical left," in terms of both social policy and its policy regarding
the Palestinians.

At the event in Maccabim-Reut, Lapid attacked Labor chairwoman Shelly
Yachimovich personally, accusing her of being unfair to him. "She knows the
truth but insisted on attacking me and claimed that [former Prime Minister]
Ehud Olmert was my political consultant," he said.