Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: To Be Israeli
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 11/5/1963
WEBSITE:
CITY: Tel Aviv
STATE:
COUNTRY: Israel
NATIONALITY: Israeli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yair_Lapid * http://reviewsbyamoslassen.com/?p=50639
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born November 5, 1963, in Tel Aviv, Israel; son of Yosef “Tommy” (a journalist and politician) and Shulamit (an author) Lapid; married Lihi Lapid (a journalist); children: Yoav, Lior, Yael.
EDUCATION:Attended Bar-Ilan University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Politician, journalist, and novelist. Founder and chair, Yesh Atid Party; appointed Israeli Minister of Finance, 2013-14. Former military correspondent, Bamahane, Israeli Defense Forces; editor, Yedioth Tel Aviv, beginning 1988. Television commentary, Channel 1, beginning 1994, Channel 2, 2008, and Channel 3, 1999-2012. Actor, Song of the Siren (film), 1994.
AWARDS:“Most Influential Jews in the World” citation, Jerusalem Post, 2013.
WRITINGS
Also author of television drama series War Room, Channel 2, 2004. Contributor, Maariv.
SIDELIGHTS
Yair Lapid is an Israeli journalist turned politician who is credited with revitalizing the opposition to the conservative Likud party. Lapid, said a Publishers Weekly reviewer, is “a national security centrist, who is also a secular Jew open to dialogue with the religious.” Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party, which he founded in 2012, first competed against Likud in the 2013 parliamentary elections. “In the elections to the 19th Knesset in 2013, Yesh Atid was the surprise of the elections,” declared a contributor to the organization’s eponymous Web site Yesh Atid, “when we received the support of 543,458 voters and became the second largest party in the Knesset with nineteen seats.” As a result, Lapid was offered the post of finance minister in the coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, but he held that post for less than two years. Netanyahu dismissed him from the position in December, 2014. Since that time Lapid has continued his political activity, pushing for a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem and criticizing Likud for its unwillingness to deal with Palestinian leaders. He has also called for cooperation with other states in the region to achieve a comprehensive peace. “I have been pushing a new concept, a regional conference that will include many of the players who are involved anyway–Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the gulf states,” Lapid told Ruth Eglash in an interview appearing in the Washington Post. “And we need to start with Gaza. Gaza is a simpler deal. There are no Jews in Gaza, no holy sites. We will not talk to Hamas, but with regional players present, we will have moderators to talk through. If we start in Gaza, we will have a win. I think the entire area needs to see progress.”
Long before he was a politician, however, Lapid was an author and journalist, following in the footsteps of his father. “He wrote and published eleven books which became best sellers,” stated the author of a biographical blurb appearing on the Yesh Atid Web site, “the most famous of which was … [Zikhronot aḥare moti: sipuro shel Yosef (Ṭomi) Lapid], a biography of his late father, Yosef `Tommy’ Lapid.” His works range from thriller novels to stage plays to television work, and they include the thrillers ha-Rosh ha-kaful, Hatsagat yaḥid: roman, ha-Ḥidah ha-shishit, and Sheḳiʻah be-Mosḳvah: roman, as well as the titles Elbi: sipur abirim, ʻOmdim be-ṭur, ha-Ishah ha-sheniyah, ha-Giborim sheli: arbaʻ hartsaʼot Tanakhiyot, and Shuv ʻomdim be-ṭur, and the play The Right Age for Love.
Lapid’s first work to be translated into English is To Be Israeli: The Heart of a Nation, the Soul of a People, a series of short essays and ruminations that spell out his thoughts on what being a Jew in the twenty-first century means, and how Israel can maintain its Jewish identity in the modern world. “Will Israel be a place where Jews can feel at home in the same way that they can in Israel today—a place where people may hate them and want to kill them, [but] if they want to, and even try, the Israeli Defense Force will be ready for them,” wrote Amos Lassen in Reviews by Amos Lassen. “According to Lapid, this is what makes Israel special and unique. … With his new political party, he hopes to answer these questions. If you really want to understand what Israel is all about, and what her challenges are, you must read this book. It might not have all the answers but it surely has a lot to think about.” His anger with Palestinians, wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “underlies his own inability to alter his entrenched positions. … By turns gloomy, patriotic, defensive, and gracious, Lapid’s reflective tone will both resonate with and arouse the ire of many.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, August 16, 2016, review of To Be Israeli: The Heart of a Nation, the Soul of a People.
Publishers Weekly, August 8, 2016, review of To Be Israeli, p. 58.
Washington Post, December 18, 2016, Ruth Eglash, “Q&A with Israeli Politician Yair Lapid, Netanyahu’s Main Challenger.”
ONLINE
Reviews by Amos Lassen, http://reviewsbyamoslassen.com/ (July 9, 2016), Amos Lassen, review of To Be Israeli.
Yesh Atid, http://www.yeshatid.org.il/ (May 11, 2017), author profile.
Yair Lapid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yair Lapid
Yair Lapid - portrait.jpg
Date of birth 5 November 1963 (age 53)
Place of birth Tel Aviv, Israel
Knessets 19, 20
Faction represented in Knesset
2013– Yesh Atid
Ministerial roles
2013–2014 Minister of Finance
Yair Lapid (Hebrew: יאיר לפיד, born 5 November 1963) is an Israeli politician, former Finance Minister and former journalist who is the Chairman of the Yesh Atid Party. He served as the Israeli Minister of Finance between 2013 and 2014. Prior to his entry into politics in 2012, he was a journalist, author, TV presenter and news anchor. The centrist Yesh Atid Party, which he founded, became the second largest party in the Knesset by winning 19 seats in its first election in 2013. The greater than anticipated results contributed to Lapid's reputation as a leading moderate.
In March 2013, following his coalition agreement with Likud, Lapid was appointed as the Israeli Minister of Finance. In May 2013, Lapid ranked first on the list of the "Most Influential Jews in the World" by The Jerusalem Post.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Education
2 Journalism and media career
3 Political career
3.1 Views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
3.2 Haredim
4 Published works
5 Honors
6 References
7 External links
Biography[edit]
Yair Lapid, born in Tel Aviv, is the son of journalist and politician Yosef "Tommy" Lapid and author Shulamit (Giladi) Lapid.[2][3] He has a sister, Merav, who is a clinical psychologist. Another sister, Michal, died in a car accident in 1984.[4]
He is married to journalist Lihi Lapid[5] and lives in the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Ramat Aviv.[6] He and his wife have three children.[7]
Education[edit]
As a teenager, Lapid struggled with learning disabilities,[citation needed] and dropped out of high school. He never earned a bagrut (high school matriculation certificate). In January 2012, controversy arose after Lapid was admitted by Bar-Ilan University into a doctorate program, studying towards a PhD in hermeneutics. This was in violation of rules stating that all doctoral candidates must hold a BA. Lapid was admitted to the university based on his extra-academic credentials and career in journalism and writing.
After the Knesset Education Committee launched an investigation, the Council for Higher Education cancelled the program under which Lapid was admitted. It allows students without a BA to study towards a doctorate.[8][9]
Journalism and media career[edit]
Yair Lapid in Jacob Goldwasser's 1991 film Beyond the Sea
Yair Lapid giving a speech at Sapir Academic College in November 2015
Lapid started his journalism career while in the Army, as a military correspondent for the IDF's weekly magazine, Bamahane ("In the Camp").[10] He also wrote for the mainstream daily Maariv.
In 1988 at the age of 25, he was appointed editor of Yedioth Tel Aviv, a local newspaper published by the Yedioth Ahronoth group. In 1991, he began writing a weekly column in a nationwide newspaper's weekend supplement, at first for Maariv and later for its competitor, Yedioth Ahronoth. His column, called "Where's the Money?", became his slogan in seeking political office.[7]
In 1994, Lapid started on TV, hosting the leading Friday evening talk show on Israel TV's Channel 1. That same year, he had an acting role in an Israeli film, Song of The Siren. He next hosted a talk show on TV's Channel 3. From 1999-2012 Lapid hosted a talk show on Channel 2.
From 1989 to 2010, Lapid wrote and published several books, spanning a variety of genres: his first was a thriller, of which he has published three more; other writing includes two children's books, two novels, and a collection of his newspaper columns. In addition, he wrote a drama series, War Room, which was aired on Channel 2 in 2004.
His journalism work and TV hosting gave him widespread recognition, and he has commanded respect.
In January 2008, Lapid was the host of Ulpan Shishi (Friday Studio), the Friday night news-magazine of Channel 2. That year, his first play, The Right Age for Love, was performed by the Cameri Theater.
Lapid has amassed wealth in his career. In September 2013, the Israeli edition of Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at 22 million shekels.[11]
Political career[edit]
On 8 January 2012 Lapid announced that he would be leaving journalism in order to enter politics.[12] On 30 April 2012 Lapid formally registered his party, "Yesh Atid" (Hebrew: יש עתיד, lit. "There's a Future").[13] The move was aimed to coincide with the general expectation in Israel for early elections to be held in the early fall of 2012.
A few days after Yesh Atid's registration, in a surprise move, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a national unity government. It was then thought that Lapid's party would have to wait until late 2013 before it could participate in national elections. But in October 2012, following the departure of Kadima from Netanyahu's coalition over how to implement a Supreme Court decision ending the exemption from the military draft for the ultra-Orthodox, Netanyahu announced that elections would take place in late January 2013, affording Yesh Atid its first opportunity to run since its formation. In November 2012, Yesh Atid was polling an average of 11.6%, or 13–14 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The final results of the January election showed the party winning an unexpected 19 seats, making Yesh Atid the second-largest party in the 19th Knesset.[14]
Lapid was named Israel's finance minister on 15 March 2013.[15] Only nine months later, a survey was published showing a continuing trend of decreasing popularity with 75% of those polled claiming to be disappointed by his performance and his party would only achieve 10 seats in the Knesset as opposed to the 19 party members who were elected at the beginning of the year.[16]
On 2 December 2014, Lapid was fired from his post as finance minister by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[17]
Views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict[edit]
Lapid said that he would demand a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.[18] His party's platform calls for an outline of "two states for two peoples", while maintaining the large Israeli settlement blocks and ensuring the safety of Israel.[19] In January 2013, just days before the election, Lapid said he won't join a cabinet that stalls peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, and added that the idea of a single country for both Israelis and Palestinians without a peace agreement would endanger the Jewish character of Israel. He said, "We're not looking for a happy marriage with the Palestinians, but for a divorce agreement we can live with." [20] As part of a future peace agreement, Lapid said that the Palestinians would have to recognize that the large West Bank settlement blocs of Ariel, Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim would remain within the State of Israel.[21] According to Lapid, only granting Palestinians their own state could end the conflict and Jews and Arabs should live apart in two states, while Jerusalem should remain undivided under Israeli rule.[22][23]
Regarding the diplomatic stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Lapid said that "Most of the blame belongs to the Palestinian side, and I am not sure that they as a people are ready to make peace with us."[24] He has, however, dismissed as unrealistic the possibility of a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians.[25]
In June 2015, after the March 2015 elections, Yair Lapid visited the United States and after an hour long interview, American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote that, "Lapid is a leader of the great mass of disillusioned centrists in Israeli politics. He could conceivably be prime minister one day, assuming Benjamin Netanyahu, in whose previous cabinet he served, ever stops being prime minister. Now functioning as a kind of shadow foreign minister, Lapid argues that Israel must seize the diplomatic initiative with the Palestinians if it is to continue existing as a Jewish-majority democracy, and he is proposing a regional summit somewhat along the lines of the earlier Arab Peace Initiative. Lapid is not a left-winger—he has a particular sort of contempt for the Israeli left, born of the belief that leftists don’t recognize the nature of the region in which they live. But he is also for territorial compromise as a political and moral necessity, and he sees Netanyahu leading Israel inexorably toward the abyss." [26]
In September 2015 Yair Lapid laid out his diplomatic vision in a major speech at Bar Ilan University [27] in which he said "Israel’s strategic goal needs to be a regional agreement that will lead to full and normal relations with the Arab world and the creation of a demilitarized independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That’s where Israel needs to head. Separation from the Palestinians with strict security measures will save the Jewish character of the state."
Haredim[edit]
During election campaign, Lapid spoke of "equal share of the burden" for all Israeli citizens. He said he would work to see all Israeli citizens, including the thousands of haredim, who had up until that point been exempt from most civil service, be included in military and civil service.[28][29] On May 27, 2013, Lapid threatened to topple the government unless ultra-Orthodox would be subject to criminal sanctions for draft-dodging. In the view of some Haredim, Lapid's plan represents a "spiritual holocaust" as they believe that their Jewish studies are what upholds Israel. Some Haredim have declared that even at the risk of being called criminals they will continue in their Jewish studies and refuse to enlist or perform civilian service.[30][31] Lapid denies that he is seeking to destroy the Haredi way of life, and stated "Not one of us wishes, heaven forbid, to force hiloniyut (secularism) on you or to impose our version of Israeli identity. This state was established so that Jews could be Jews, and live as Jews, without having to fear anyone."[32]
Published works[edit]
The Double Head: thriller (1989)
Yoav's Shadow: children's book (1992)
One-Man Play: novel (1993)
Elbi – A Knight's Story: children's book (1998)
The Sixth Riddle: thriller (2001)
Standing in a Row: collection of newspaper columns (2005)
The Second Woman: thriller (2006)
Sunset in Moscow: thriller (2007)
Memories After My Death: Biography (2010)
Honors[edit]
In May 2013, Lapid ranked first on the list of the "Most Influential Jews in the World" by The Jerusalem Post.[1]
Q&A with Israeli politician Yair Lapid, Netanyahu’s main challenger
By Ruth Eglash December 18, 2016
Israeli politician lashes out at the media Play Video2:05
Israeli politician lashes out at the media (Office of Yair Lapid)
JERUSALEM — As things stand today, Yair Lapid might just be the only person in Israel who could viably challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the leadership.
A former journalist who once anchored Israel’s most popular television news show and the son of a former Israeli minister, Lapid heads a party called Yesh Atid (There is a Future), one of the largest opposition factions in the Israeli parliament.
For more than six months, surveys have suggested that Lapid could give Netanyahu a close race, if elections were held today.
[Netanyahu sweeps to victory in Israeli election]
Since Netanyahu’s election in 2015 to a historic fourth term, Lapid has stressed a message that embraces the Israeli center on domestic issues but talks tough on Palestinians. He says he supports a Palestinian state. But he wants to build a wall around it.
At a briefing this week with foreign journalists, Lapid challenged a reporter who asked whether Israeli leaders were “deluded” in thinking they could talk about democracy when Israel has enforced a military occupation on the Palestinians for nearly 50 years.
Speaking in English, Lapid responded that unlike the Palestinians, “who call Jews pigs and monkeys,” Israel makes sure that human rights are protected. “Why don't you go to Gaza or the West Bank and ask them about woman's rights, the rights of the gay community, the rights of Christians?” Lapid said.
He went on to blame the international media for perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by discouraging the Palestinian leadership from making concessions necessary to make peace.
We sat down with Lapid recently in his office in Israel’s parliament. This interview has been edited and condensed for space and clarity:
Do you believe Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a partner for peace?
Many times, President Abbas has proved not to be a partner for peace. Three times over the past 15 years, the Palestinians were offered more than 90 percent of what they are asking for and three times they said no. They must understand they are not going to get everything they want.
The Palestinians have this mantra, that Abbas is the last of the Tunis generation [those who founded the Palestine Liberation Organization], that he is the last person capable of signing a deal with Israel. But it is the other way around — because he is part of the Tunis generation, he cannot sign anything.
Isn’t the same true about the Israelis? In Israel, the same people have been saying the same things about the same peace deal for 20 years. Do we need to see a change in Israel before peace can be reached?
Since the Oslo accords, there have been 11 rounds of bilateral talks and all of them came out to the same nothing. It was the same people, saying the same things to each other.
If we are going to do this, then there needs to be a different mechanism. Since last September, I have been pushing a new concept, a regional conference that will include many of the players who are involved anyway — Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the gulf states.
And, we need to start with Gaza. Gaza is a simpler deal. There are no Jews in Gaza, no holy sites. We will not talk to Hamas, but with regional players present, we will have moderators to talk through. If we start in Gaza, we will have a win. I think the entire area needs to see progress.
Could having Donald Trump in the White House change the situation for Israel vis-à-vis reaching a deal with the Palestinians?
I think there is an incredible window of opportunity. We know the basic strategy of the Palestinian Authority and of President Abbas has collapsed. They have been saying for a while that there is no need to negotiate with Israel, that they just need to make sure international pressure on Israel gets tougher and tougher.
But the new U.S. administration has already announced that this strategy is not going to work with them, and I think that if Israel went back to the negotiation table now, it would do so from an interesting position of power that it did not possess in recent years.
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Netanyahu boasts about how Israel is now getting along with the rest of the world; he says he is “optimistic” about relations he has cultivated in Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, but surely the only relationships that really matter diplomatically are those with the United States and Europe?
Without criticizing the prime minister, I will say there is a difference between how you handle trade policy and foreign policy. Trade policies deal with everyone everywhere in the world, but foreign policy is subjective. It is dependent on three places — Washington, Brussels and international institutes. This is where the game is played, so if you are in the game, then you have to make sure you are on good terms with all these three.
[Israel’s Netanyahu seeks to make new friends in historic first visit to Africa]
I think we could do better and should do better. Of course, the kind of alliance we have with the U.S. is unbreakable. We have had a rough couple of years, but now, Israel has to return to its bipartisan stature. We are grateful for support we’ve had from the Republican Party, but the Democratic Party is just as important to us.
Read more:
Q&A with former Israeli peace negotiator Tzipi Livni: ‘Israel needs to decide its own policy’
Israel says there’s never been a more right-wing U.S. ambassador than Trump’s pick
Yesh Atid was founded in 2012 by the Chairperson of the party, Yair Lapid.
The party was founded to represent Israel's middle class which serves in the army, worksandpays tax but still ends each month in debt.
The central idea of Yesh Atid is to change the national priorities of the State of Israel, to fight against political corruption, sharing the national burden equally, rights and responsibilities for the citizens of Israel, bringing down the cost of living, increasing the number of people in the work force, putting education at the forefront, caring for the weakest in society, curing the healthcare system, reducing bureaucracy and bringing about a diplomatic agreement.
In the elections to the 19th Knesset in 2013, Yesh Atid was the surprise of the elections when we received the support of 543,458 voters and became the second largest party in the Knesset with 19 seats.
Yesh Atid was a member of Israel’s 33rd government. The ministers were Yair Lapid – Finance Minister and Chairperson of the Housing Committee, Shai Piron – Education Minister, Yael German – Health Minister, Meir Cohen – Welfare Minister, Yaakov Perry – Science, Technology and Space Minister and Chairperson of the Special Ministerial Committee for National Equal Burden.
During the 19th Knesset Yesh Atid put took a long list of steps intended to change the national priorities in the country including the National Equal Burden Law which regulates enlistment for secular and ultra-orthodox alike, as well as the rights and responsibilities which stem from compulsory service and encourages the ultra-orthodox population to join the work force. The agreement which was reached ensured that, for the first time, there was one law for everyone which ensures the ultra-orthodox population is also committed to national service.
A significant structural change was the reform in the system of government which reduces, by law, the size of the overblown governments, prohibited the appointment of Ministers without Portfolio and increased the electoral threshold. Yesh Atid put together the first national program for assistance to Holocaust survivors in Israel, A program in which a billion NIS a year were invested and ensured free medication to survivors, increased the benefits and grants to which survivors are entitled and reduced the complex bureaucracy with which they survivors had to contend.
At the beginning of December 2014, Yair Lapid was fired from his post as Finance Minister because the Prime Minister refused to support the 2015 budget which Lapid has built, a social budget with an extra 10 billion NIS to social services including education, healthcare, welfare and internal security without increasing taxes. That led to the collapse of the government, the dissolution of the Knesset and the upcoming elections.
Chairperson of Yesh Atid
Formerly the Minister of Finance of the State of Israel and Member of the Security Cabinet
Yair Lapid was born in Israel in 1963, is married to Lihi and is the father of Yoav, Lior and Yael.
Son of the late Yosef ‘Tommy’ Lapid , a journalist who served as Chief Executive of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister and Shulamit Lapid, an author and former Chair of the Israeli Authors Association.
Brother of Michal (of blessed memory) and Meirav
In 2012 Lapid announced his entry into the politics and founded the Yesh Atid party. The party believes in changing the national priorities of the State of Israel and placing the middle class at the center of the economy, sharing the national burden equally, rights and responsibilities of the citizens of Israel, putting education at the forefront, reducing the size of government and working towards a diplomatic agreement.
In the 2013 Knesset elections the party was the surprise of the elections when it received the support of 543,458 voters and became the second largest faction in the 19th Knesset.
Yesh Atid was a member of the coalition and held the Finance Ministry, Education Ministry, Health Ministry, Welfare Ministry and the Science, Technology and Space Ministry.
For many years Lapid was a journalist, TV presenter and an author. He wrote and published 11 books which became best sellers, the most famous of which was “Memories after my father” which was a biography of his late father, Yosef ‘Tommy’ Lapid’.
Prior to his entry in politics Lapid was active in a range of social organisations including Aleh which assists disabled children, Children at Risk for autistic children, Youth Renewal Fund which aims to improve education for all children in Israel and he served as Chair of the friendship association of a school for children at risk, as well as teaching civics at a school in Jaffa.
To Be Israeli: The Heart of a Nation, the Soul of a People
Publishers Weekly. 263.32 (Aug. 8, 2016): p58.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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To Be Israeli: The Heart of a Nation, the Soul of a People
Yair Lapid, trans, from the Hebrew by Nathan Burstein. St. Martin's/Dunne, $26.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-250-04400-6
American readers interested in Israeli politics are likely to be disappointed by this unfocused collection of essays. Lapid (Memories After My Death), a prominent politician and former finance minister once viewed as a serious rival to Benjamin Netanyahu, offers 78 short selections on topics including what it means to "To Be a Jew," his experience dieting, and the phone company that continues to send his late father bills. The humor is often sophomoric, and context is only provided irregularly for the undated essays; for instance, a footnote explains who a settler leader is, but there is none regarding an Israeli singer whose name will be unfamiliar to many. Questionable statements--such as that Reform Judaism's core tenet is to combat assimilation--don't help, and stating that to "do your bills at night and decide you need to cut back" is somehow "to be Israeli" is just confusing. Sadly, this book doesn't convey what makes Lapid a significant figure in his country: a national security centrist, who is also a secular Jew open to dialogue with the religious. This book represents a missed opportunity for Lapid to share his vision and experiences with Americans. (Oct.)
“To Be Israeli: The Heart of a Nation, the Soul of a People” by Yair Lapid— A Hopeful Vision
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to be israeli
Lapid, Yair. “To Be Israeli: The Heart of a Nation, the Soul of a People”, Thomas Dunne, 2016.
A Hopeful Vision
Amos Lassen
Yair Lapid gives readers “his unique perspective on his equally unique homeland”. He shares the history of Israel, writes about the people who live there and the government in “To Be Israel”, a collection of insightful, poignant, and often humorous essays, Lapid writes about the that have shaped his country: the conflict with the Palestinians, anti-Semitism, terrorism, and the legacy of the Holocaust.
Yair Lapid is head of the center-left party Yesh Atid and has been a newspaper columnist and a television broadcaster for many years. He is a wonderful writer and his observations on Israel are fresh and creative; much like the man who has written them.
Lapid tells us that he is a secularist, and yet he describes the kind of synagogue that he yearns for. He says he would be willing to give back the territories for the sake of peace, but he also says that he does not know any Palestinian group to whom it is safe to return them yet, and that, until there is such a group, Israel has no choice but to hold on to them. He claims to be worried about the extremists among the settlers, but he also says he has many good friends among those that live in the settlements. On one hand he says that he is for making peace but he also tells us that his first reaction when he hears about a terrorist attack is that we need to ‘teach them a lesson in response. We certainly see his ambivalence but even more than that is the ambivalence of Israel. The citizens of Israel know that they cannot hold on to the territories forever, and yet recognizes there is not yet one to whom it is safe to return them. Israelis are irritated by the strictures that are imposed upon it by the religious political parties, while at the same time yearns some way to express its spirituality. In some ways Israel has made a radical break with the past and yet in some ways still maintains a powerful connection with it. Israelis are a people that has a powerful connection to the dead, and yet wants, more than anything else, to live.
Lapid once wrote in one of his newspaper columns that there are really two Israels that co-exist side-by-side. In one Israel, the army does terrible things such as murdering innocent children but in the other Israel, the air force drops pamphlets written in Arabic, warning civilians to move away before it sends down its bombs. Corruption is a way of life in Israel with both a former prime minister and a former president having done jail time. The black market in the country is as big (and sometimes bigger) than the legal market. There is a great deal of suspicion in the country and because of that not a lot gets done. In order for anything in the country to move forward, two signatures are necessary. The concept of labor has religion is dead and statistics show that there are as many Thais living in Tel Aviv as in Bangkok. One Israel was founded as a response to the Holocaust while the other Israel lets survivors die in poverty and neglect.
In one Israel, young people still volunteer for the most dangerous combat units. In the other Israel, young people evade the draft and drink vodka in the bars until late at night. Israel is different from the land it was supposed to become. Europeans who were supposed to come waited too long and were murdered, and it is different because the Russians and the Ethiopians whom nobody thought much about have come. The Western World has changed dramatically from what it was supposed to be, and Israelis different because their Arab neighbors have not changed as much as they were supposed to. The Israel that I went to live in fifteen years after the proclamation of the state is not the Israel of today and that Israel will never be again.
Lapid has no nostalgia for the good old days— those days are gone forever; he isn’t much interested in today’s Israel because that will soon be the past. Lapid’s concern is the Israel of the future. He is worried that everyone will speak English and Hebrew will once again be a dead language. He is worried that the sense of history of the Jewish people will be forgotten. After all, camels were traded for Mercedes Benz automobiles a long time ago. Will Israel be a place where Jews can feel at home in the same way that they can in Israel today— a place where people may hate them and want to kill them if they want to, and even try, the Israeli Defense Force will be ready for them. According to Lapid, this is what makes Israel special and unique.
“Will it be a place where people will think and dream in Hebrew, and will it be a place where children will know whom Shakespeare and Rashi, Dante and Rambam, were as well – and not feel any need to choose between knowing them?”
These are the questions that Lapid and others of his generation must find the answers for and he has now entered politics in the hope of being able to deal with them. For many years, Lapid wrote about these issues in his columns in the Israeli newspapers, and has spoken about them on his television programs. Now, with his new political party, he hopes to answer these questions. If you really want to understand what Israel is all about, and what her challenges are, you must read this book. It might not have all the answers but it surely has a lot to think about.
For American Jews have to know not only what the divisions within Israeli society are, they also must know what is written here.
TO BE ISRAELI
The Heart of a Nation, the Soul of a People
by Yair Lapid, translated by Nathan Burstein
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KIRKUS REVIEW
Short essays on a changing, vilified Israeli identity.
Eminent Israeli journalist and politician Lapid (Memories After My Death: The Joseph (Tommy) Lapid Story, 2011) assumes a reassuring Everyman persona in these briefs, expressing both a sense of pride at what the Israelis have accomplished and confusion regarding how they are often portrayed. The author is an educated father and devoted husband who seeks to protect his family from the engulfing, nearly daily violence by Palestinians, and he craves above all a normal day when headlines don’t scream at him and the radio plays its regular programming. He wonders how his beloved country of childhood friends, refuge for Holocaust survivors, including his father, and magnet for educated, high-tech strivers and young people who serve willingly in the military has moved from a nation of citizens who once believed in an idea greater than themselves to a place where “the struggle to exist is the only form of existence.” Israel has “lost its faith in itself,” he affirms, and while he condemns the tit-for-tat violence and believes in a two-state solution, the anger at Palestinian intransigence (“we know the Arabs don’t keep their end of agreements”) underlies his own inability to alter his entrenched positions. Indeed, the “confusion” about how his country got to this point may strike some readers as disingenuous. In “The Puzzle of Hate,” Lapid ruminates over the hatred the world holds for his people, who have built up the land and economy at miraculous speed, but he makes no mention of the Nakba, the massive forced deportations of Palestinians in 1948. “Did we do something to them? When? How?” he asks. The author’s attempt to think like an everyday Palestinian (“If I Were an Arab”) ends in a familiar litany: “We’re here because we have nowhere else.”
By turns gloomy, patriotic, defensive, and gracious, Lapid’s reflective tone will both resonate with and arouse the ire of many.
Pub Date: Oct. 4th, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-04400-6
Page count: 304pp
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3rd, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15th, 2016