New Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who faces a budget deficit as a primary challenge for the current Israeli economy. Photo: Yesh Atid Party.

Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine on Thursday.

The Yesh Atid chairman is the only Israeli on the list for 2013—in addition to being the list’s only political leader from the Middle East. Time wrote that Lapid “was carried into public office on the frustrations quietly accumulating in the living rooms where he was a fixture for two decades.”

“If the world at large views Israel through its conflict with the Palestinians, Lapid personifies the nation’s determinedly inward focus,” the magazine wrote.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had already been featured in the list in previous years, was absent from this year’s list.