This past Tuesday's Israeli legislative elections for the 19th Knesset gained relatively little international media attention despite the immense effect on the United States' and European Unions' Middle East politics and policies in the coming years, most notably with regards to Iran's alleged pursuit of obtaining nuclear capabilities. When first announced in October, the elections received much attention, but once international news outlets discovered that Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party would merge with Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party in order to form a unified right-wing front, and in so doing, making it almost impossible for anyone but Bibi to take the prime minister's office, international interest plummeted. Many prematurely categorized the next government as one that would continue to follow the "status quo" in its relations with the Palestinians and its progress in the peace process. Outside of a few articles on Bayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennet's rise in popularity among Israeli voters, most notably in the form of a sizable article in the New Yorker which emphasized his radical views on how to deal with the Palestinians in the West Bank, there was an absence of news about Israel in the international media, which is otherwise fascinated by every aspect of Israeli politics.

The results of the elections show how na??ve the media can be. Yair Lapid's centrist Yesh Atid party was crowned last Tuesday as the clear winner in this year's race. While the Likud-Beiteinu ticket was by far the popular winner, it received significantly fewer seats in the Knesset than originally expected, while Yesh Atid received double what they predicted to gain just days before the elections, and three times as many as began campaigning began. Lapid's party is now situated as the second largest in the country and has essentially been given the power to form the coalition that will govern the State of Israel. Yesh Atid, which was founded less than a year ago by a popular television host and whose candidate list consists of respectable community leaders, none of whom have previously held positions in the Knesset, is now in the driver's seat in deciding who will govern the United States' number one ally.

I mention the lack of experience in Lapid's group not to delegitimize the party but rather to emphasize the absurdity in the lack of coverage that the international media has paid to this election. This being said, a deeper look at Yesh Atid will show that rather than keeping the Israeli government in the status quo, it is in a position to actively assist in shaping the country's policies. In every aspect, Yesh Atid is considered a centrist party.  Every single one of its political stances is aimed at reaching the middle ground of the Israeli political spectrum, which it's capable of claiming, as none of its members have ever been affiliated with any other political party. The backgrounds of the party's eligible Knesset members are vast, and the central theme of Lapid's campaign has been to unify and improve all of Israeli public life. As an example, Lapid, who is commonly categorized as anti-religious due to his father's views of separating religious and public life in Israel, picked to fill the second spot on his candidates list Rabbi Shai Piron, who helped establishe one of the largest hesder yeshivot, a religious institution that combines Jewish learning and army service in the country.

After the previous election in 2009, Tzipi Livni, who led the centrist party Kadima, which actually won the popular election but could not form a coalition large enough to rule the Knesset was forced to head the opposition party. Centrist political parties have always been a big part of Israeli politics, but unfortunately, after Livni began her mission of opposition to Netanyahu's leadership, her "centrist" views quickly slid leftward in order to oppose the right-wing hold on the government. This has created a scenario in Israel that seems all too similar to that of America: Right vs. Left. At times, the polarization that has formed in Israel over the past few years has shown signs of transforming a political spectrum that was once nicely distributed from one extreme to the other into one that is weighted on both sides, pulling those caught in the middle to one end or the other.

The media saw this polarization continue to worsen and judged that the elections were not worth covering. However, they missed the boat on Yesh Atid.

The day after the election results were announced, rumors began flying that Lapid would join an "obstructive bloc" that would contend for a chance to rule the government in a similar situation to what happened in 2009 when Livni won the popular vote, but could not take the office of the prime minister. Lapid quickly and firmly denied these rumors, stating that he would join the coalition with Likud-Beiteinu. He essentially stated that he would not take part in undermining the public opinion, which evidently preferred a center-right government.
Rather than side with the left-wing bloc, which would cause an eventual leftward slide to right-wing opposition, and theoretically position Lapid as a potential prime minister, Yesh Atid claims that it will hold steady in the center. Lapid has now placed his party in a position to add an effective centrist view to the government. Rather than compromising its ideology in order to gain power, Yesh Atid will have the opportunity to make a significant change within a coalition that has shifted and been pushed to the right. By choosing to work with, rather than oppose, the most popular party in the country, Lapid and Yesh Atid will finally be in a position to bridge the gap between the right and left camps and begin dissolving the polarization which has been ravishing Israeli politics.