Yesh Atid Party Formation
On 8 January 2012 Lapid announced that he would be leaving his journalism career in order to enter politics. On 30 April 2012 Lapid formally registered his party, "Yesh Atid" (Hebrew: יש עתיד, lit. "There's a Future"). The move was aimed to coincide with the general expectation in Israel for early elections to be held in the early fall of 2012.
A few days after Yesh Atid's registration, in a surprise move, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a national unity government. It was then thought that Lapid's party would have to wait until late 2013 before it could participate in national elections. But in October 2012, following the departure of Kadima from Netanyahu's coalition over how to implement a Supreme Court decision ending the exemption from the military draft for the ultra-Orthodox, Netanyahu announced that elections would take place in late January 2013, affording Yesh Atid its first opportunity to run since its formation. As of November 2012, Yesh Atid was polling an average of 11.6%, or 13-14 seats in Israel's 120-seat Knesset.
Read more about this topic: Yair Lapid
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