Lapid: Herzl ‘would be ashamed’ if he could see Netanyahu and his government
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
If Theodor Herzl were alive today and could see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “he would be ashamed,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares from the Knesset rostrum.
In an address in honor of Herzl Day, which fell on Sunday, Lapid questions what the progenitor of modern political Zionism would have made of a prime minister “who is not willing to take responsibility for 1,500 Jews who were killed and murdered on his watch [and] who is not willing to say: I am guilty, I am responsible, I am going home,” says Lapid. Not all of those killed on October 7 and in the subsequent war were Jewish.
“Your punishment, Mr. Netanyahu, is that this is how history will remember you. This is what you will be remembered for. For not taking responsibility, for not admitting your guilt. That you didn’t even know how to ask for forgiveness and leave at [the appropriate] time,” Lapid says.
“We will not win with this government,” he continues. “We will not win with Haredim who do not want to enlist. We will not win with militias burning humanitarian aid trucks. We will not win with ministers who talk about total annihilation and atomic bombs on Gaza.”
“Not only did Herzl want a Jewish state, but also a model liberal, fair, egalitarian society. He wanted there to be a government here that would protect the Jews from racism and violence, not a government that would foster racism by Jews and violence by Jews,” he says.
“If Herzl were to wake up today and look at the country, he would be proud. If Herzl were resurrected and looked at the government, he would be ashamed.”