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Yair Lapid, chairman of new political party Yesh Atid, delivered his first major address on the party’s foreign, security and diplomatic platform last night. Significantly, Lapid chose the Ariel University Centre as the venue for his speech. Ariel is situated in the West Bank but is considered a major settlement bloc, which many distinguish from more isolated settlements. Indeed, Lapid made clear that under his leadership, Ariel and other major Israeli population centres in the West Bank, such as Ma’ale Adumim and Gush Etzion, would remain under Israeli sovereignty.

At the same time though, Lapid criticised Prime Minister Netanyahu for “wasting four years without making progress towards a [peace] agreement.” Lapid pledged that “Yesh Atid will not join a government that will not conduct diplomatic negotiations.” In what appeared to be an attempt to appeal to the political centre, Lapid summarised his approach to peace-making, saying, “You don’t come to negotiations only with an olive branch, the way the left does, or only with a gun, the way the right does. You come to find a solution. We’re not looking for a happy marriage with the Palestinians, but for a divorce agreement we can live with.”

Lapid also outlined his “two iron rules” on any future peace agreement, ruling out the right of return for Palestinian refugees and said that he would not divide Jerusalem.

Addressing the threat of a nuclear Iran, Lapid said that Israel’s military options should only be used as a last resort, commenting, “We are not supposed to solve the problem for the world, we’re supposed to make the world solve the problem for us.”

Earlier this week, two significant new names were added to Yesh Atid’s electoral list. Journalist Ofer Shelah joined the party, while Lapid confirmed that prominent religious leader Rabbi Shai Piron will fill the number two slot on the list.