Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid commemorated the 10th anniversary of his Yesh Atid party on Jan. 8, sharing photos of big cake to celebrate his ambitious personal project.

Until January 2012, Lapid was a popular TV host and columnist. At 48, he was considered one of the most influential people in the country’s television industry. He hosted Channel 2’s “Friday Studio” and wrote the most highly read column in the “Seven Days” weekend supplement of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. He spoke and wrote extensively about secular and liberal ideals while expressing his deep desire for a new kind of politics to transform the country.

Lapid has a family legacy in politics. His father, former Justice Minister Tommy Lapid, headed a short-lived centrist party called Shinui in the early 2000s.

A decade later, in January 2022, Lapid can look back with pride at what he has achieved. Unlike so many other centrist parties that disappeared almost as quickly as they emerged, the party that he founded survived, and Yesh Atid is now the second-largest party in the country. Today, Lapid stands at the forefront of the center-left bloc, and barring any surprises, will become prime minister in another year and a half. He has the backing of a party with hundreds of thousands of supporters and tens of thousands of activists.