Yes, the man who wrote "Living in Shenkin" is going to be prime minister: Lapid's cultural journey

In recent years, Torch has seemed to be trying to escape identification with his past in the world of culture and media, perhaps to bolster his more serious and mature image.

But we are here to mention the most significant stations of Lapid in his previous world: the books he wrote, the programs he directed and the songs he created

Sagi Ben Nun

23/06/2022

Thursday, 23 June 2022, 18:00 Updated: 18:25

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Yair Lapid (Photo: Reuven Castro)

28 years ago, in June 1994, Yair Lapid was at the beginning of his career as a TV presenter, and was chosen to present the memorable program "Life is not just football" on Channel One, which was broadcast during the World Cup.

On this occasion, I had an extensive personal interview with the young star for the late "Leisure Plus" weekly.

The interview highlighted Lapid's vigorous attempt to convince that he had learned from experience, matured and improved, personally and professionally, which he expressed in his masculine image ("I do not think I have the macho image left"), in giving up featherweight projects ("I stopped chanting in writing texts for 'Young Tel Aviv' "), and learning professional TV secrets on the backs of viewers (" Now I am able to stand with my back to the camera and know that she is filming me ").

In addition, he spoke touchingly about walking in the footsteps of his father, Tommy Lapid ("Every parent wants his child to follow in his footsteps. We have some kind of metaphorical door that reads: 'Lapid and Son Ltd.', and we both really like being behind the same door") , Praised a veteran colleague ("The people who say Rebecca went off the screen because she failed - we'll get their opinion on them"), and prophesied about his future ("at most I will be Ernest Hemingway"). Exactly 28 years after that interview, it is already clear that Hemingway. Indeed, he will become Israeli Prime Minister next week, and this time Lapid really should not make an effort to convince him that he has learned from experience, matured and improved.

After film actor Ronald Reagan became president of the United States;

Reality star Donald Trump entered the same role;

And the comedian and actor Vladimir Zalansky captured the presidency of Ukraine, for the first time in the history of Israel a person from the world of culture and media will take over as prime minister.

Until ten years ago, Yair Lapid, a writer, screenwriter, songwriter, actor, presenter and journalist, will fulfill the dream of his life and will soon enter Balfour.

In recent years, Torch has seemed to be trying as much as he can to escape identification with his past in the world of culture and entertainment, perhaps to bolster his seemingly more serious and mature image.

But we are here to mention the most significant stations of Lapid in his previous world.

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Yair and Tommy Lapid (Photo: Flash 90, Moshe Shai)

Reporter

When asked in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth years before he entered politics: "Are you a writer? An entertainer? An interviewer? An actor? A journalist?"

The beginning of his media career was in the days when his father served as CEO of the Broadcasting Authority, and unsurprisingly - whether because of his connections, skills or both - he spent his military service as a reporter for the newspaper "Camp", which became an object of ridicule for many years

. Lapid wrote a popular weekly column in Maariv for Weekend Magazine, never hiding his great inspiration from Jonathan Geffen, and later moved to Yedioth Ahronoth, where he wrote until his retirement in politics at the end of 2012. He has appeared in two books in his journalistic career. Write a thorny investigation in his name, but hey,

TV screenwriter

The general public remembers mainly the presenter Lapid, and less so the TV creator Lapid: In the late 1980s, Lapid wrote for Channel One the series for youth "The Last Freedom" which he created with Uri Paster, starring the Tel Aviv Youth Band.

The series dealt with a group of teenagers who were punished with the great freedom, as is already clarified in the opening song written by the screenwriter Lapid, "We have the freedom," while in the present, the politician during the current great freedom actually received the gift of his life.

Another series he created is the drama "War Room" which aired on a Channel 2 network franchise in 2005.

The review wrote about her, among other things, that she was trying unsuccessfully to imitate the "White House" series.

In reality, imitating Bibi, some argue that Torch was more successful.

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Yair Lapid in the presentation of "Ulpan Shishi" (Photo: screenshot, official website)

TV presenter

Tens of thousands of words have been poured in that great politicians like Ben-Gurion might not have been elected today because of insufficient television skills.

For Lapid, like Bibi before him, the screen greatly helped his success in politics.

In the 1990s, he presented the programs "Weekend" and "Closing Week" on Fridays on Channel One, a prestigious broadcast slot filled by Dudu Topaz, Rivka Michaeli, Ehud Manor and Yaron London.

It has reached tremendous ratings peaks of Romema's monopoly days that today can only be dreamed of, and all without really being funny.

"It was a show with a stand-up segment in the opening, which was characterized by me telling jokes and the audience not laughing," Lapid laughed about the days of "Weekend."

The ones who did not laugh most at his program were the ultra-Orthodox parties, after the program "Closing a Week" gave Lapid the corner of "Parshas Hashavua" for Gil Koptash.

The ultra-Orthodox politicians even threatened to overthrow the government if Kuptsch's corner did not come down.

Afterwards, Lapid presented the interview program "Yair Lapid Chai Beeshar" which was broadcast every evening on Channel 3 on cable, and from 2000 and for seven years he presented the network program bearing his name on Channel 2 network broadcasts.

The critics accused him of being too nice an interviewer.

An attempt to break his stickier image from the gel on his hair took place in 2008 when he began presenting the "Studio Six" edition of Channel 2 News. .

His announcement that he would retire to politics brought the "Torch Law" to the agenda, according to which a cooling-off period of six months would be required of a media person who wanted to run in the Knesset elections.

The mother, the author Shulamit Lapid (Photo: Aviv Hofi)

author

On one occasion when a new book and his new TV show were launched in parallel, Lapid was asked what was more important to him at the moment, to which he replied: "I love both. I really like being on TV in terms of pure adrenaline, being on the edge of an electronic device with a million people. "It's a very strong feeling. I compare the writing to a bird. There is great beauty in seeing a bird flying in the sky, but when it walks on the ground you can see the feathers and notice all the details. The TV for that matter is a flying bird, and the writing is the bird that walks slowly on the ground."

Even before it became a political red sheet for the ultra-Orthodox, Lapid gave them one less reason to like it in his 1987 debut book centered on a Hassidic courtyard in Bnei Brak and involving an international plot of jewelry theft, cash smuggling and attempted murder.

In the book, Lapid portrays the character of private detective Josh Shirman, and like the author himself, who is also a boxing enthusiast, did not refrain from smoking a joint and the son of a journalist.

Lapid's mother, Shulamit Lapid, created the researcher Lizzie Badihi that year, but despite the family inspiration, Lapid as a writer did not come close to his mother's honorable status.

His 12 books include other thrillers - "The Sixth Riddle" and "The Second Woman", the novel "Sunset in Moscow" and the biography "Memoirs After My Death: The Story of Joseph (Tommy) Lapid" - in an original and moving way, Yair wrote on behalf of his father, in the first person.

More on Walla!

"The right is only interested in personal gain. The left wants to share what it has"

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Yair Lapid and Dalit Kahn kiss in the movie "The Siren Song" (Photo: Screenshot, from the movie "The Siren Song")

Movie actor

Many years before the names of Netanyahu and Arnon Milchen were wrapped in one of the Alps files, somewhere in the mid-1980s, Lapid worked as a producer and film editor for a company owned by Milchen in Hollywood.

Then, in 1991, he starred in the film "Overseas" by Incol Goldwasser, and in 1994 as a marginal character in the film "The Siren Song" by Ethan Fox, as Ofer, the ex of Talila played by Dalit Kahn, including an unforgettable kiss scene between them.

In an interview with Walla!

Culture Kahn was recently asked if, when she starred alongside Lapid in their youth, she could have imagined that the guy would one day be foreign minister and deputy prime minister.

"From the brief acquaintance I had with him it does not seem strange to me," Kahn replied.

"Why strange? He is a serious and sympathetic person and we will add that his father was a political figure."

By the way, when Lapid was asked two years ago in an interview who would play the role of Yair Lapid in a film about his life, he replied: "Tom Cruise. He is the only one who is short enough."

Hymn

In a moment of honesty, Lapid once admitted: "I'm not a poet and I have no talent who knows what that is. Roni Somek, my good friend, is a poet. "I do not have it. Ted Hughes is Ted Hughes, and I do not. I do not have the talent to be a poet."

So a poet he may not be, but a songwriter of some hits he actually is.

One of the biggest hits he wrote was "Live in a Ham", composed by Rami Kleinstein, was the first single from the band Mango's only album.

The designated prime minister wrote it in 1988 while living on Sheinkin Street and depicts a stereotypical figure of a woman living on the street.

The line "But on cold nights she knows it's getting complicated" corresponds with Natan Zach's "Evening Song".

The song commemorated the mythical "Coffee Tamar", which closed in the middle of the previous decade.

And here is a lesser known fact about the song: Former mango friend Michal Tzafir said that the song had another home, which "disappeared",

Lapid and Kleinstein had other musical collaborations, including the song "Young Forever" - a translation of Lapid to Bob Dylan's song in a new melody by Kleinstein who also sang, and together they created for Rita the songs "Cry" and "The Sailor's Beloved Song", about which he wrote Rita to Walla!

Culture in an interview for her 60th birthday: "Yair Lapid was a friend of Rami. I remember one day Rami came back from the sea and said 'I wrote a melody for you' which was really a sea melody. Then he offered to give the melody to Yair. Lapid had just finished reading 'Yam "The death of Georges Amado and that cost him a lot."

Lapid also signed one Mediterranean song, "She'll See", a cover version in Hebrew of the Greek hit "Haida Bar" originally written by Tryphons, which is also featured in a song performed by Einat Shroff who is considered Lapid's girlfriend (by the way, in the Hebrew version Lapid wrote a line that probably did not work A few years later, in the Mi-Tu era: "Her dress stood out / Everything you already wanted").

Before Lapid flirted with Mediterranean music, his father Tommy Lapid opened a front with her 20 years ago as a Knesset member, when he told Razi Barkai on IDF waves in reference to Amir Benyon's song: us".

Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett (Photo: Screenshot, Contact)

Additional fronts

Lapid has also served as a presenter for Bank Hapoalim since 2003, and it was reported that he received about $ 220,000 a year for it.

When he was appointed finance minister, there were those who feared a conflict of interest as a result.

In addition, he presented in the IDF waves the program "Host Birds" with Daphne Spiegelman and wrote the play "The Right Age for Love" which was presented in the chamber directed by Roni Pinkovich. When he wrote: "Roni Pinkovich died today in euthanasia in Switzerland.

On Saturday we went to say goodbye to him at Effie's on the grass.

He does not look like someone who is going to die in five days.

'So what,' he told me, 'I will not know how it ends with the story with you?'.

He did not say it sad but funny, so we laughed. "If Pinkovich looks down, he is probably smiling again these days, because the end of Lapid's story so far is a happy ending.

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