In Knesset speech next to Trump, Lapid says US leader has ‘saved millions’ from war, deserved Nobel

By Sam Sokol 13 October 2025, 2:19 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Addressing US President Donald Trump at the Knesset, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid lauds the American leader for saving “millions from the horrors of war,” stating that he has “done the unimaginable.”

“Mr. President, you have saved the lives of our hostages. But you saved so much more. You have saved the souls of the bereaved whose loved ones now will be brought home for burial, you have saved thousands of soldiers who will not fall in battle, and you have saved millions from the horrors of war. You have saved far more than one life, and each life is an entire world,” Lapid declares in the Knesset plenum ahead of Trump’s address to the body.

“When you were elected, you declared that you would be ‘the President of Peace.’ You have kept your word. The fact that you were not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is a grave mistake by the committee – but they will have no choice, Mr. President. They will have to award it to you next year,” Lapid says.

Lapid gets a standing ovation (including from Bibi) when he declares in Knesset that “when you stand with Israel, you stand on the side of justice.” pic.twitter.com/q4P1Tmwqgl

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) October 13, 2025

“We will be eternally grateful – but we also need to take responsibility,” Lapid says. “The destiny of Israel will always be written by the people of Israel. We must now prove ourselves worthy of what has been achieved.”

Asserting that “Israel is the strongest nation in the Middle East because it is the only democracy in the Middle East,” Lapid calls on “all the nations of the Islamic world” to “come talk to us.”

“We are here to stay. Our story did not end in the Bible, it began there,” he adds, calling on Trump to advance normalization efforts between Israel and other countries.

“Mr. President, you are the one who can make it happen — as you did with the historic Abraham Accords. Then, too, no one believed it was possible. Then, too, you imposed your vision on everyone. While others spoke of difficulties, you created opportunity. You can be the one to bring the next wave of peace. The people of Israel support this. They want it. We are ready.”

Appealing to the “deal-maker who understands value” to deepen “our eternal alliance,” Lapid says, “if there were one stock in the world I would invest in today, it would be the State of Israel.”