Words matter. These are the best Yair Lapid Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Even in an enlightened democracy, the media have to check themselves to make sure they are not contributing to an unnecessary mass hysteria.
The State of Israel was not established by anxiety but, rather, through pride.
Succeeding in life is a difficult business – you need to work 16 hours a day, face failures along the way, remember that nobody owes you a thing, and take risks.
The democratic system is premised on trust in the masses’ wisdom. We believe that the collective is wiser than its parts and that, at the end of the day, it shall make the right choices and take the right decisions.
The Holocaust changed our perception of morality not only because we discovered that morality is the only thing that can stand up to the ultimate evil, but also because it shifted the focus from society to the individual.
If you want to change a country, you’re going to be bumped every now and then.
I studied math, and I was terrible at it.
If you want to do stuff, you have to be able to handle controversy.
People like to invent enemies. It spares us the need to address complex worldviews.
When someone doesn’t react to changes, the changes turn against him.
One of the things that hold together a human society is the existence of basic politeness among its members.
Israeli citizens deserve full-time ministers.
The liberals will surely argue that every person has the right to fall in love with no regard to religion, creed or gender, but I am not that liberal.
Jewish existence in the Land of Israel depends only on the Jews, and on what the Jews think of themselves.
Gregory Lee Johnson was an idiot.
Every Jew is my brother, and I will not succumb to hate speech.
Journalists always explain that people are mad at them because they tell the truth, which is often unpleasant or uncomfortable to hear. However, they fail in situations where there is more than one truth.
Hebrew is the language I use to thank the Creator and, also, to swear on the road.
The rabbis and their wives may say whatever they wish in private conversations. I may not like their views, but a person is allowed to say anything in his or her own home.
Does the global Left – as well as the Israeli Left – truly not care about the horrific Taliban regime, the terrible oppression of women in Gulf states, and the mass hanging festivals in Iran?
Instead of personal security, citizens are afraid to walk down the street in Jerusalem.
One of the greatest fears of the Arab world is a direct conflict between Israel and the Islamic State.
The views of religious-Zionist rabbis are of course worthy of being heard, yet they represent a very defined and very narrow camp within the Israeli spectrum. This is not the way to shape the perception of future division and brigade commanders.
When the Americans see someone like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, who made billions thanks to their talent and determination, the first thing they say to themselves is, ‘I want to be like him.’ This, in many ways, is the engine that drives Western society: The desire to make it like the winners.
Jerusalem will remain under Israeli sovereignty and will not be divided.
I do not deal with threats and ultimatums.
Twenty percent of students in Israel’s schools are haredim; another 20% are retired; another 20% are Arab. I have no problem with any of them.
Netanyahu needs to stand before the Israeli public and say, ‘I failed.’
Judaism shouldn’t be the jailhouse of ideas but a liberator of ideas; not a disintegrator of people but what brings people together.
Facts cannot be replaced by opinion.
I want to do everything in my power to ensure the equality between all movements of Judaism in the state of Israel: Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform. In conversions, in budgets, in the eyes of the law. No one can claim ownership over the Jewish God.
In politics, there is only one crime that is unforgivable – showing weakness.
I’m not telling you what to do on the Sabbath, and you won’t tell me.
The Palestinians must be brought to an understanding that Jerusalem will always remain under Israeli sovereignty and that there is no point for them in opening negotiations about Jerusalem.
When you say to Israelis, ‘European boycott,’ they think it means that this year they won’t get Camembert cheese on time… That is not the case.
One of the hardest things is to create hope.
Holocaust survivors came to Israel in order to establish a new human society where nobody would be able to hurt them just because they’re Jewish. This is both a furious and vulnerable message.
I have written to Israel’s friends around the world, including the U.S. Congress and the E.U., and asked them to make funding for the United Nations dependent on ending blatant discrimination against Israel at the U.N. Human Rights Council.
For years, Judaism has been a sort of product put on the religious shelf, and on holidays, we would take it off the shelf and let seculars play with it for a bit. Now, Judaism is going back to being something that more closely touches everyone.
Corruption is when a politician uses public funds to deliver pistachio ice cream to his home and transfer garden furniture to his Caesarea villa, then requesting that the expenses be covered for the water in his pool and fights to get a private jet.
If someone doubts our right to exist – be it on the hills of Umm al-Fahem or in Munich’s beer halls, in Gaza’s crowded streets or in the thick woods of Babi Yar – it’s their problem. Proud states do not break into wails and crawl under the carpet when they discover someone doesn’t love them.
Intellectuals know how to answer the question, ‘What God do I believe in?’ not only through the question of ‘What God do I abhor?’ Intellectuals can also answer the question of ‘What flag do I wave?’ without having to answer the question of ‘What flag do I burn.’
Israel was founded as a refuge for the Jewish people, but today it isn’t a safe place. It is safer to be Jew in New York.
I like Tel Aviv; I live in Tel Aviv, but our right of return is Jerusalem. We did not return after 2,000 years for Tel Aviv but for Jerusalem.
I used to have so many opinions before I learned the facts.
Quite a few people feel uncomfortable when faced with the claim that the Jews are the world’s smartest people. In our politically correct era, one is not expected to argue that one group within humanity has an advantage over all the others.
Freedom of expression is tested during times of anger and conflict and enables all opinions and outraged expressions of dissent that we may not want to hear. But even for this there have to be limits.
My children receive education that greatly emphasizes the fact they are part of a human group that has tradition, collective memory, and a state. I am a great believer in the need for Israel to be a Jewish state. I certainly believe my children will pass that on to their children.
Social revolutions are never simple.
The Internet, Facebook, synagogue pamphlets, and the plethora of TV channels and cellular networks in our lives increasingly blur the boundary between the public and private sphere.
