The future beckons, we reckon

MK Eli Avidar announced,”Whoever thinks I will hurt the (unity) government because of a position is a fool” (MK Avidar remains committed to a new government,” June 21).

Kol ha kavod to him. He is following the illustrious footsteps of David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, the first prime minister and the first president of the State of Israel.

These two great leaders had many profound disagreements in the tortuous run-up to the establishment of the state, but when it came to the crunch when justice minister Dr Felix Rosenbluth proposed Weizmann be elected president of Israel, Ben-Gurion immediately seconded the proposal. He did not conceal the many differences of opinion which had divided the two of them; instead he went on to say, “I doubt whether the presidency is necessary to Dr Weizmann, but the presidency of Dr Weizmann is a moral necessity for the State of Israel.”

We are at a similar moment of urgency: Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, the architect who created our new government, has inspired many of us and also our new MKs and ministers to do what is morally imperative for the State of Israel after the frightening moral collapse of the Likud and especially of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We are all reeling with shame at the raucous lèse majesté we witnessed during Netanyahu’s final speech and his refusal to shake the hand of friendship proffered by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

This country is supposed to be a light unto the nations. The ability to compromise and forge friendships across party lines is a sign of political maturity and that is how our great leaders set the tone right from the start.

Let us turn a deaf ear to the petty leader of the opposition and his rabid followers. We are greater than they are. Our future without them beckons. SUSAN TUCKER

Netanya