Yair Lapid is the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Israel's 36th Government. He is also the Chairperson of the Yesh Atid Party. Foreign Minister Lapid was born in Israel in 1963, is married to Lihi and is the father of Yoav, Lior and Yael. He is the son of the late Yosef 'Tommy' Lapid, who was a journalist and later CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, Member of Knesset, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, and of Shulamit Lapid, an author who has published numerous works in Hebrew and was former chair of the Israeli Writers' Association.

 

Before entering politics, Minister Lapid was a journalist, television presenter, creator and writer. He published 12 best-selling books, the most prominent of which was Memories After My Death, written about his late father's life and reached the top of the bestseller list 100 times and has been translated into many languages. He published a weekly newspaper column that was the most widely read in the Israeli press, and presented multiple TV programs, that won numerous awards as well as being the most watched news show on Israeli TV. In addition, Foreign Minister Lapid has written hit songs which reached the top of the charts in Israel.

 

Before entering politics, Minister Lapid was active in many social organizations, including: Aleh -the Association for Assistance to People with Special Needs; "Children at Risk" for Autistic Children; YRF Association for Renewal in Education for Young People with Disabilities and taught citizenship at a school in Jaffa.

 

In 2012, Lapid announced his entry into politics and founded the Yesh Atid party, which he heads to this day. Yesh Atid is a centrist, Zionist, and liberal party. At the center of its ideological concept is to clean up the political system and fight corruption, balance between the Jewish and democratic values of the country, fights for the rights of women, LGBT and other minority groups, strengthen Israeli law enforcement and improve education and science. The party believes in strengthening security in Israel, striving for regional stability and extending Israel's hand in peace to all its neighbors.

 

In the 2013 general election, Yesh Atid was the surprise party of the election receiving over half a million votes, and becoming the second largest party in the Knesset (Israeli parliament), with 19 seats. The Yesh Atid party held, in addition to the finance portfolio, the education portfolio, the health portfolio, the welfare portfolio and the science, technology and space portfolio. Minister Lapid served as the Minister of Finance and was a member of the political-security cabinet, during Operation "Protective Edge".

 

In 2013, Lapid was included in TIME magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world and Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers.

 

In the elections to the 24th Knesset, Yesh Atid received 17 seats. Minister Lapid received the mandate from President Reuven Rivlin to form a government, and on the 2 nd June 2021 Minister Lapid informed the President that he had been successful in forming a government coalition. On 13th June 2021 the new government was sworn in and Yair Lapid became Minister of Foreign Affairs