Top 112 Quotes & Sayings by Yair Lapid
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Israeli politician Yair Lapid.
Last updated on September 16, 2024.
If someone doubts our right to exist - be it on the hills of Umm al-Fahem or in Munich's beer halls, in Gaza's crowded streets or in the thick woods of Babi Yar - it's their problem. Proud states do not break into wails and crawl under the carpet when they discover someone doesn't love them.
You want private education for your students? No problem whatsoever; pay for it.
There's always a reason not to do anything... to flee the need to make decisions.
Israel's middle class is paying for those below it, and that's fine, but also for those who are above it, and that's very wrong.
I studied math, and I was terrible at it.
One of the things that hold together a human society is the existence of basic politeness among its members.
The rabbis and their wives may say whatever they wish in private conversations. I may not like their views, but a person is allowed to say anything in his or her own home.
Does the global Left - as well as the Israeli Left - truly not care about the horrific Taliban regime, the terrible oppression of women in Gulf states, and the mass hanging festivals in Iran?
The democratic system is premised on trust in the masses' wisdom. We believe that the collective is wiser than its parts and that, at the end of the day, it shall make the right choices and take the right decisions.
If, for 2,000 years, you dress up differently, believe in a different God, celebrate different holidays, and on top of it insist on telling everyone that you're completely different than them, ultimately they'll believe you.
Children believe that if they just want something badly enough, it will happen.
The settlers, as we know, are the only people in Israel who take the Left seriously. When you read the settlers' publications, you think that the leftists are everywhere: The leftists infiltrate the government, the leftists run the Defense Ministry, the leftists dominate the legal establishment, and the leftists control the media, of course.
An old friend of mine, an economist by trade, once explained to me that the statistical definition of 'dilemma' is 49.9% in favor and 50.1% against. If the gap is greater, there is no dilemma, because the answer is clear.
Netanyahu needs to stand before the Israeli public and say, 'I failed.'
Even in an enlightened democracy, the media have to check themselves to make sure they are not contributing to an unnecessary mass hysteria.
Why doesn't anyone remember that the Palestinians already had four real opportunities to establish their state, yet each time they preferred to revert to terrorism?
Facts cannot be replaced by opinion.
Intellectuals are people who manage the world in their head. They look at life and try to see some kind of truth, and if they cannot find it, they attempt to create it.
Israel was founded as a refuge for the Jewish people, but today it isn't a safe place. It is safer to be Jew in New York.
Politicians around the world are very different, but they all have one thing in common: The first thing they respond to is public opinion.
Gregory Lee Johnson was an idiot.
I don't feel we need a declaration from the Palestinians that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
If you want to change a country, you're going to be bumped every now and then.
Freedom of expression is tested during times of anger and conflict and enables all opinions and outraged expressions of dissent that we may not want to hear. But even for this there have to be limits.
In politics, there is only one crime that is unforgivable - showing weakness.
I do not deal with threats and ultimatums.
The State of Israel was not established by anxiety but, rather, through pride.
Arab society features apartheid of women, apartheid of homosexuals, and apartheid of Christians, Jews, and democracy.
I'm not particularly fond of Shoah jokes, yet there is one I cannot forget: Why was Auschwitz an optimistic place? Because all the pessimists were already in New York by then.
I want to live in a country that is not just a place but also an idea, and Jerusalem is the heart of the idea. There may be practical considerations, but a country cannot exist without an ethos, and Jerusalem is an ethos.
Yeshivas barely teach any Bible, only Talmud.
I'm going into politics because I think that the kind of discourse taking place in Israel is leading this country to oblivion, and I want to change it.
The settlers do not have a problem with the leftists but, rather, with Israelis who like settlers: Israelis who are unconcerned by the fact that national-religious youngsters are overtaking our elite units. Such Israelis actually appreciate the settlers for that.
For years, Judaism has been a sort of product put on the religious shelf, and on holidays, we would take it off the shelf and let seculars play with it for a bit. Now, Judaism is going back to being something that more closely touches everyone.
As opposed to journalists, politicians cannot make do with questions. They must also offer answers.
Politics - when it's not cynical, it can be a creation.
Jewish existence in the Land of Israel depends only on the Jews, and on what the Jews think of themselves.
Quite a few people feel uncomfortable when faced with the claim that the Jews are the world's smartest people. In our politically correct era, one is not expected to argue that one group within humanity has an advantage over all the others.
The Israeli media are very important to me. I've been part of them and they a part of me all my adult life.
Israeli teachers are not required to hold an academic degree, and their salaries are the lowest in the Western world.
The Israeli public's willingness to enlist, the warm embrace for the soldiers and the residents of the south, and the desire to contribute and to give at any given moment really warm the heart, and it gives all of us strength.
I like Tel Aviv; I live in Tel Aviv, but our right of return is Jerusalem. We did not return after 2,000 years for Tel Aviv but for Jerusalem.
If you want to do stuff, you have to be able to handle controversy.
The Golan Heights is an area in the north of the State of Israel that has no part in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Holocaust changed our perception of morality not only because we discovered that morality is the only thing that can stand up to the ultimate evil, but also because it shifted the focus from society to the individual.
At times, we need to stop and rethink everything. Our entire history is made up of people who were sure they knew the truth yet forgot that the truth has an annoying tendency to change on occasion without us noticing it.
My children receive education that greatly emphasizes the fact they are part of a human group that has tradition, collective memory, and a state. I am a great believer in the need for Israel to be a Jewish state. I certainly believe my children will pass that on to their children.
Intellectuals know how to answer the question, 'What God do I believe in?' not only through the question of 'What God do I abhor?' Intellectuals can also answer the question of 'What flag do I wave?' without having to answer the question of 'What flag do I burn.'
When you say to Israelis, 'European boycott,' they think it means that this year they won't get Camembert cheese on time... That is not the case.
Holocaust survivors came to Israel in order to establish a new human society where nobody would be able to hurt them just because they're Jewish. This is both a furious and vulnerable message.
There is a clear interest within ISIS to drag Israel into a war with them. If they do so, they will be able to paint Israel as having an alliance with the states fighting against them.
Decisions are never easy. If they were easy, they wouldn't be called decisions.
The liberals will surely argue that every person has the right to fall in love with no regard to religion, creed or gender, but I am not that liberal.
I think that haredi children should study the core subjects and that their parents must work, and I believe that there are many haredim who think like me and would be glad to discover that someone is fighting the radical functionaries and rabbis who embitter their lives.
One of the greatest fears of the Arab world is a direct conflict between Israel and the Islamic State.
The win-win situation is the basis for America's entire business world. Instead of wasting our time attempting to defeat each other, let's find a way that will make both of us gain and go home satisfied. In Israel, it doesn't work because the only meaning of victory is seeing your rival's body lying trampled on the floor.
The Internet, Facebook, synagogue pamphlets, and the plethora of TV channels and cellular networks in our lives increasingly blur the boundary between the public and private sphere.
Instead of personal security, citizens are afraid to walk down the street in Jerusalem.
Twenty percent of students in Israel's schools are haredim; another 20% are retired; another 20% are Arab. I have no problem with any of them.
Journalists always explain that people are mad at them because they tell the truth, which is often unpleasant or uncomfortable to hear. However, they fail in situations where there is more than one truth.
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