Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader and former prime minister, has spent his political career trying to vanquish Benjamin Netanyahu.

You might not know it from his recent conversations with Senate Democrats.

In a series of phone calls with left-of-center American lawmakers since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Lapid has conveyed resolute support for the Netanyahu-led government’s strategy in Gaza. There has been no second-guessing of the war cabinet or quiet sniping at Israel’s unpopular right-wing administration.

Some who know Lapid, who served as Israel’s interim leader for the final six months of 2022, have been struck by his formality on the phone — and the absence of the lively and confiding mien that American Democrats can find disarming.

“Despite his deep, historic misgivings about Netanyahu, he wanted to make clear that there was real unanimity of purpose when it comes to the campaign in Gaza,” said Senator Chris Murphy, a top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He was delivering a message about the imperative of defeating Hamas.”

When I asked Murphy if Lapid had actually mentioned his rivalry with Netanyahu, he quickly clarified that Lapid had not.

“I’m seeing that as the context,” the senator explained. “There was no predicate to the message he was delivering.”

One person familiar with Lapid’s conversations with Democrats said they represented a kind of whip effort to reinforce support for Israel among “people who are skeptical of the government and closer to his value set.”

“They obviously have very little love for Netanyahu, very little faith in Netanyahu,” this person said of Senate Democrats. “Lapid says to them: This is not about the government. This is about Israel’s security.”

Yet the 60-year-old Lapid, a centrist former television journalist, is a canny enough communicator to know it is possible to send multiple messages........

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