Fight for the common good
Prime Minister Yair Lapid yesterday addressed the memorial ceremony for IDF soldiers who fell in the Yom Kippur War.
Yair Lapid Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)
Speaking at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem, he said: “We must be prepared for any external threat, and we must prepare together. If we allow ourselves to be divided in times of relative quiet, we will not know how to stand together in times of war.
Our enemies need to know that Israeli society is stronger than any disagreement, that Israel’s power is the power of unity, that in life or in death, nobody will succeed in dividing us.
The soul-searching that every Jew does on Yom Kippur, our leaders must do even more. We must make sure that our eyes are open for any danger, that we are not beholden to concepts that endanger us, that we neither ignore opportunities for peace nor ignore warnings of war.”
We are allowed – it is even desirable – to debate what is the right strategy for the State of Israel, how we can prevent the next war. However, we cannot forget that our enemies have never given up their ambition to destroy us. Every hour that passes, we must be smarter and stronger. Above all, we must remember that we are here together, one Israeli family.
Out of the great pain of our fallen soldiers, we must flourish as one country. The fallen of the Yom Kippur War did not fall so that Israeli society would break apart from within. The best way to remember them is to remember the objective for which they sacrificed their lives: A strong, democratic Jewish state that leaves nobody behind.”
If we know how to die for one another, we should also know how to live for one another. If we know how to fight the enemy together, we should also know to fight together for the common good.”
