to the Prime Minister Yair Lapid An amazing thing happened yesterday. For many years he was the most read and successful columnist in Israel. At first in “Maariv”, then in “Yediot Ahronoth”. And here, the column he wrote this week spread his wings and became the speech of the Prime Minister of Israel before the General Assembly of the United Nations. It’s hard to find a columnist who doesn’t dream of this happening to him (full disclosure: I don’t). But then you wake up, wash your face and return to the sweaty reality where your words are corrupted into the space of the blogosphere without leaving a mark (it used to be “wrapped in fish”).
This happened to Lapid. Yesterday he wrote another such column, a typical Yair Lapidi column: immersive writing, sometimes moving, very eloquent, persuasive, reasoned, inspiring hope, empathy, concern and even pride. Writing that also sins with pathos, exaggerations, bombastic statements and flights of self-aggrandizement (impersonal, national).
But that’s how it is when you write columns. from experience. After all, Yair Lapid never lacked talent. He is one of the more gifted writers who were here and he is endowed with another important feature: he is easy to write. A bountiful spring. You don’t spend whole nights agonizing over the text. It just flows from his stomach through his heart, sometimes his head too, straight to the keyboard. A column that moves through all the known stations of our lives: from a beacon to revival, from excellence to concern, from extending a hand for peace to the threats of war.
A supremely patriotic Israeli-Zionist column, strictly Jewish. column column But a spectacular and one-time historical trick turned Lapid from a columnist into the authority, responsibility and ruler over our destiny. His words are no longer corrupted into nothingness, but engraved on the pages of history. Suddenly, content is thrown into content. Suddenly it’s not another columnist who marked another Friday, but the Prime Minister of Israel who represents us against the gentiles. And the speech itself? Exciting and built for talismans. On the other hand, such speeches had already been made before him. The greatest orator in our history, Benjamin Netanyahushowed up there, year after year, with the same talent and the same pathos and the same moving words, and even (a little) better English.
But here comes the catch. After thatNaftali Bennett Proved it last year, it was Lapid’s turn: yes, Israel is capable of producing leaders who know how to stand up to the world and deliver their message in an eloquent, convincing and moving way, without their name being Benjamin Netanyahu. And one more thing: it’s good to know that the leader who ended up there this year (and last year too) didn’t shake his wife, grown sons, a group of flattering billionaires and 17 laundry suitcases with him. Came, spoke and came back.