From Lapid tells Paraguayan leader: We need your voice in the face of ongoing injustice
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"
Speaking in Spanish during a special plenum session welcoming Paraguayan President Santiago Peña in the Knesset, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid welcomes Asunción’s decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem, “the eternal capital of Israel.”
“Here, in the streets where the prophets of Israel and Jesus Christ walked, it is appropriate that the Paraguayan flag be waved. Thank you on behalf of a whole nation,” Lapid states.
“Not only here in Israel, everywhere, we live in a world that has gone mad,” Lapid continues, switching back to Hebrew.
Citing recent democratic setbacks in Romania and Georgia and “what has been happening in the courtroom in Tel Aviv over the past two days,” Lapid says that “we live in a world where there is no difference between truth and lies, where dictators speak in the name of democracy, corrupt rulers speak in the name of the rule of law, and social networks controlled by totalitarian states engineer public opinion with the help of addictive algorithms.”
“We have friends, Mr. President, friends like you, but your voice is not heard enough,” Lapid tells Peña.
