ISRAEL-POLITICS-LAPID

Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid leaves a financial conference in Jerusalem on December 2, 2014. Israel looks set to hold early elections within months following a crisis in the ruling rightwing coalition provoked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to media reports. Cracks in Netanyahu's right-leaning coalition emerged over the 2015 budget and a contentious bill aimed at enshrining Israel's status as the Jewish state in law, a move strongly opposed by Lapid, a key coalition partner who heads the centrist Yesh Atid party, and by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni who chairs HaTnuah, also centrist. AFP PHOTO/ GALI TIBBON (Photo credit should read GALI TIBBON/AFP via Getty Images)