Lapid's Passover prayer: Lord, get the Palestinians away

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://972mag.com/lapids-passover-prayer-lord-move-the-palestinians-away/89689/

Finance Minister Yair Lapid, the moderate mainstay of Netanyahu’s right-wing government, published today a long, rambling post drenched in self-pity (typical enough, on the most reassuring of Jewish holidays). The post is titled ”A (private) Prayer for Passover,” and it contains the following paragraph:

“There used to be a 16th century philosopher called Zeno, who asked: “Can God create a rock He himself cannot lift?” At the time they thought the question had no answer. That it was a paradox. Now we know that the answer is yes. There is a rock like that, and it’s called the Palestinians. And it’s true You can’t lift it, Father who art in Heaven, but could You roll it aside a little bit? Because this rock is a stone placed upon our hearts. They say You can’t stop a madman coming in with a knife to a school in Jerusalem, trying to kill students. But this is precisely why You are omnipotent. We need you in that place in which we always needed You: when all other possibilities failed. And even then, our Lord and Lord of our Fathers, it is not enough (lo dayenu).

The paragraph has been picked apart by eye rollers – Zeno didn’t live in the 16th century (this, and only this bit, was later edited out from the post), he didn’t invent the omnipotency paradox (it was probably Ibn Rushd), how exactly several millions of people are one rock, which is also a stone, and who placed it on our collective heart. The most chilling bit, though, is the core of the “prayer”. Lord, make the Palestinians move away somewhere. Just anywhere. Get them out of our face.

Lapid may not be intelligent, moral, strategic, erudite, principled or good at math, but there is one quality that cannot be denied to him – he is a walking, talking, writing barometer of the Israeli public mood. This is how he got his stardom, this is why he scooped up all these profile votes: because he reflects to Israelis Israelis as they wanted to see themselves. And this inane little ramble touches on the the very heart of the Israeli attitude to Palestinians: They are a nuisance.

[Ken Burch]

1. Reminds me of the "moderate Palestinian" in that old James Michener novel

who is depicted arguing, at one point, that all Palestinians should leave Palestine-and become shopkeepers in Costa Rica!

Still amazes me that Michener actually thought there was even the possibility that any Palestinian would EVER even think something like that.

And this probably tells us what's going to happen next...at some point, Lapid will start merger talks between Yesh and Likud. If the man actually sees things this way, he never WAS a "moderate".