Israel’s Lapid Seizes His Turn to Take On Netanyahu

TEL AVIV—Yair Lapid waited more than a decade to become Israel’s prime minister this week, albeit in a caretaker capacity. Now the former talk-show host has four months to broaden his support base and keep his job before the next elections in November.

Mr. Lapid has long been an important backroom player. Before the government headed by Naftali Bennett collapsed, Mr. Lapid helped construct an eight-party coalition including centrists, right-wingers, leftists and an independent Arab party that was largely bound by a shared antipathy toward the country’s previous leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.