Yair Lapid
Yair LapidChen Galil

MK Yair Lapid, one of the leaders of the Blue and White Party, gave a speech on Thursday at the Institute of National Security Studies (INSS) on the topic 'National Security, fake news, and the Battle for Consciousness'.

"Terrorism is a political act. This is the field in which it operates. The tools of terrorism are military. weapons, explosives, intelligence, but its action is political and media action," Lapid claimed.

"The real explosive charge that he attaches to Israeli society is anxiety. If he triggers fear, he wins. If he changes our policy, he wins. If we let him determine the political moves, that's what he wants," he said.

"The response to terrorism cannot be in the ballot box, it cannot be in the negotiating corridors, it cannot be in settling settlements, it cannot be in changing the laws. To make a political move in response to terrorism is to let it win. Not to make a political move because of terrorism is to let it win.

He noted that "the response to terrorism cannot be anywhere but on the battlefield. It is a Sisyphean struggle. It has no end. It has no political gain. But everything else is a victory for terrorism and we cannot be terrorized forever."

In his address, Lapid mentioned several ways in which terrorism can achieve political goals. One example concerned Transportion Minister Bezalel Smotrich. "What is forbidden is to let terrorism change our policies. After Rina Shnerb's horrific murder last August, Cabinet Minister Bezalel Smotrich went on the air saying that the Palestinian Authority must be dismantled in response. That's exactly what terrorism is trying to achieve. They have what they wanted to achieve. If terror dictates our policy, it wins."

New Right Chairman Naftali Bennett said in response to Lapid's statements: "Arab terror is fueled by Arab hopes to break our spirit and our desire to live here and develop here in Israel. Construction and settlement of the country create the opposite effect: it discourages them from their hopeless hopes."

"Israel's founding fathers understood this. Kiryat Eight and the Five were called Arab terror murderers, for that reason," Bennett said.