What do I think is the most Israeli? Yair Lapid. What’s the most Israeli thing about Yair Lapid? That he has no idea what the occupation looks like. He doesn’t understand the occupation, doesn’t know a thing about it and doesn’t care about it.
Does Benjamin Netanyahu take more of an interest in the occupation? Certainly not. But Netanyahu doesn’t believe in coming to an agreement with the Palestinians, while Lapid claims that he actually does. Lapid is the essence of Israeliness, because Lapid is the essence of Israeli self-satisfaction, psychological repression, denial, a refusal to know, self-delusion and self-exultation over how beautiful we have become.
He’s also the essence of self-victimization and arrogance. It’s us and only us for which everything is allowed, because of what we have gone through of course, what only we have gone through. Lapid, who is secular, also believes in the right of the Jews to the country, which, when all is said and done, is based on a divine promise. That’s why Lapid is so Israeli.
He’s also the most Israeli because over the course of his life, it’s doubtful that he has met more than half a dozen Palestinians, including the dishwashers at the Balfour Pub and Café Noga, which he used to frequent in his youth, and including the Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh, with whom he recently met. In his youth, he may also have heard impressions of the occupation from Haaretz news photographer Lihi Mann, whom he later married, and who during the period of the first intifada regularly and with impressive courage covered the occupied territories on the ground, including a night in Nablus.
It’s doubtful that her husband has ever visited the Gaza Strip. He certainly has never been to a Palestinian refugee camp, and it’s doubtful that he’s even seen one through binoculars.
How can one be an Israeli prime minister who is purportedly seeking peace, the head of the moderate camp, a light unto Israelis, and not have a clue about the Palestinians, about what we have and are inflicting on them, about their lives and deaths, their hopes and dreams?
The racist South African President F.W. de Klerk met in his presidential residence with Prisoner No. 466/64, Nelson Mandela, who was brought to him from Victor Verster Prison. Of course, it wouldn’t occur to Prime Minster Lapid to meet with Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, not to mention releasing him – perhaps the only revolutionary step that might herald a change.
How can you be an Israeli prime minister who purports to herald a change without knowing anything about the reality that is in his government’s control, less than an hour’s drive from his house? It turns out that you can be. After all, almost none of his predecessors as prime minister knew what was going on.
Those who did have some knowledge were fed intelligence reports, as seen through the crosshairs of a gun. Under such circumstances, it would have been better for them to know nothing.
Lapid is so Israeli that he doesn’t even see the Palestinians. They may not be in Lapid’s view inferior human beings, temporary guests in their own land, or enemies, as the Israeli right views them. But for him, they’re nothing but air.
He actually purports to consider their fate. He certainly hasn’t had a single diplomatic meeting as foreign minister in which the subject of the occupation hasn’t been raised, at least as lip service, but the so very Israeli Lapid doesn’t have a clue about what he wants for this country in another 20 years – what will become of the Palestinians and what they are entitled to – let alone being troubled by them. It’s so Israeli.
Lapid will restore the color to Israel's cheeks that the world so loves, Israel’s humane and liberal and peace-seeking countenance. In a considerable number of world capitals, they are looking forward to his appointment as prime minister. It will be possible again to jumpstart some kind of peace process. Perhaps a phone call to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and on a good day, maybe even a meeting.
It will again be possible to speak about a two-state solution, thereby providing relief to a world that couldn’t stand Netanyahu, that peace resister. Now the world, which also is no longer taking an interest in the fate of the Palestinians, can sleep soundly, along with Lapid.
Lapid is the most Israeli because such subjects are nothing but a nuisance to him, the buzz of a mosquito. Why deal with them if you can talk about high-tech, the LGBTQ community, the legal system or even heap praise on United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas? Lapid is the most Israeli because Masafer Yatta, where West Bank Palestinians are subject to eviction, rings a bell for him, but he won’t remember exactly where it’s coming from.