Lapid, Yosef (Tommy)

(1931- )

   He grew up as Tomislav Lampel in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. His father was killed in the Mauthausen concentration camp, but he and his mother survived World War II and the Holocaust in the Jewish ghetto in Budapest, Hungary. He immigrated (see ALIYA) to Israel in 1948, changed his name to Lapid, served in the Israel Defense Forces, and studied law. He became a journalist and author and served as an editor and editorial writer at Maariv. He also appeared on the prime-time, political talk show "Popolitika," which was important in his political life. In March 1999, he was approached to head the Shinui Party and he agreed to join them. He ran a political campaign bashing ultra-Orthodox Jews, railing against their "medieval," antidemocratic ways, special privileges, and raids on the public trough. Under Lapid's leadership, Shinui won 6 seats in the 15th Knesset (1999) and 15 seats in the 16th Knesset (2003).

   Lapid and Shinui agreed to join the Likud-led coalition government formed by Ariel Sharon on 28 February 2003 (on the condition that there be no ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition), with Lapid serving as justice minister and deputy prime minister. Accused of placing principle above realpolitik, Lapid and Shinui were dismissed from the cabinet in December 2004 over Lapid's refusal to abide the inclusion of ultra-Orthodox parties to shore up Sharon's government in the struggle to achieve parliamentary support for the Gaza unilateral disengagement. Shinui split up in the 2006 Knesset election in disputes over policies and personalities, and Lapid announced his retirement from party politics. Lapid left Shinui two weeks before the March 2006 election to join a splinter faction but chose not to participate in the leadership of that faction and served only as a figurehead and was accorded the 120th slot on its electoral list. The splinter faction won no seats in the new Knesset and Lapid announced his retirement from electoral politics in July 2006, although he remains very much a public personality through his regular participation on radio and television current affairs programs and his chairmanship of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.