Day 290 of the war: Lapid’s speech in Kaplan

Last week was full of dramatic events, but President Biden’s announcement that he is quitting the race made everything else pale in comparison. As an American citizen living in Israel, I am really sorry. Biden was a great president and restored sanity, humanity, and reason after Trump’s presidency. As an Israeli, I am doubly sorry because Biden is a true friend of Israel and cares about Israel much more than those who were elected to serve us. Still, by leaving, Biden did the right thing, and Kamala Harris brings with her renewed hope to win the election and stop Trump.

The demonstration in Kaplan on Saturday night was full of emotions. The citizens in Israel are tired of protesting, but of course they cannot go back to their lives while the hostages are still in Gaza. Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition, was the main speaker again.

It was a very hot and humid summer night, and Lapid stood on the stage wearing a formal black blazer. In the audience, there were many men around his age wearing brown T-shirts of Brothers In Arms. I am sure that Lapid wished he too was wearing one of these light T-shirts. Most of Lapid’s speech focused on the corruption and callousness of the government, and on Netanyahu’s attempts to sabotage the current deal to release the hostages.

Still, I derived hope from some of the things he said: “I sit in the Knesset and I see things that you can’t see. This situation won’t hold up. There are no longer cracks in the coalition; now there are fractures. They are done, and they know it. They will fall, and we will rebuild. We have done it in the past, and we will do it again. On the day that it happens, you will know that it was thanks to you. You did it. It happened because you left home and went to fight for what you believed in.”

And then came my favorite paragraph: “Next year, you will cross the intersection on your way to the movies, to the mall, or to buy ice cream, and the intersection will be empty. You will say, ‘I used to come here every week until I overthrew the government.’ Because it was you, and not anybody else, you overthrew the government.” These simple words about normalcy, describing scenes from everyday life that we cannot afford to have, made it possible for me to imagine and dream of a better future.

As I write this post I got a notification that two of the hostages in Gaza, Alex Dancyg (76) and Yagev Buchshtav (34), were killed in captivity. We must rescue all the hostages now.