The israeli people are indeed a good people given what they have been through and where they are now. As for leaders, they are human, not used to power and suffer 2000 years of dhimmitude. However, lapid, a media creation is in my judgemtent totally unfit for high office. His family was one of the sponsors of ehud olmert, the worst leader in israeli history, a gutless coward who has no principles. margalit belatedly discovered olmert's incompetence. Lapid has no lessons to give israelis with his esoteric postulations about peace. How about every israeli keeping a loaded gun as his own security guard. And maybe israel could learn from the russians. Years ago, 2 russians were taken hostage in lebanon by the usual god raving terror groups. Whereupon the russians seized 2 lebanese , cut off several of their fingers and ears and sent it to the hostage bosses saying more would be removed each day unless the hostages were returned. Needless to say the hostages were returned. I told you guys to take haniyeh, masr and zahar and their principals hostage for trade but olmert and barak did not want to do it. Lapid has nothing of value to tell the israeli people as his father was an olmert asskisser.

who are campted out in tents here in cold Montreal in their Occupy Montreal protest. The leaders you have, were voted in by the people. No matter how you slice it, they reflect you and not the holy ghost. Take responsability for your poor political system. As a matter of fact the poor political system allows one of your poor skills to wax poetic about nothing.

THE ONLY WAY TO SALVAGE ANYTHING OF THE OBSCENE SHALIT DEAL IS TO HAVE THE ISRAELI GOV'T ANNOUNCE THAT THOSE ON THE FREED ARAB LIST HAVE AGREED TO BE DOUBLE-AGENTS FOR ISRAEL. THEY WILL NEVER BE TRUSTED AGAIN BY THEIR OWN PEOPLE.

Of coruse! Yes, you are right. But the even more "leaders" are the uncrowned kings, like this one, Pravda-on-the-Yarkon! Chew on that (this fundamental truth) you phony propagandist!

An incohate mix of blind rejection and mispelled nonsense. Netanyahu is a leader? He reads only which way the public mood is swinging and jumps on board. 'Me,Me,Me' is right except that we are not a normal democracy in a normal context where a leader can play that game.

Amazing, on TV as a 'newscaster' Lapid says this was a finely tuned organized deliberate campaign pushed + insisted upon by media, praises Netanyahu, but here plays Naive. Really, when Yair Lapid talks about who gets to decide things he REALLY does mean "Me Me Me" <- As in him and his quite liberal, quite left, media Elites. He must think we are Friers. Clearly, we are.

The only thing this deal shows that Israeli masses instead of using brain use emotions. This is quite unfortunate and most our problems are result of this

politicians liars,military and murderous cops,robbers businessmen,stars fornicators and millions and millions of ignorant and poor desires belonging each other,envy and jealous,this world sucks,the threads of the great satan can see more than ever if you are not blind and you can see,deaf and hear,silent and speak,is a repetition day after day a deja vu,with simulators,pretenders and actors on this stage called life,religion does not teach the right path of justice,love and truth that they pursue their selfish material desires as well as teach falsehoods dividing all humanity in hatred and separation of religion without teaching that before this first humans and all are human beings,and i wonder:will that be aware of all these crap is be living the great tribulation? fuck! i am one of them,the world never stops because hell must continue...

This swap will go down in history as one of Israel's biggest blunders along with the Oslo accords and other assorted failures

i still have it in my home, for guests and visitors. i do not turn it on for myself. at first it was strange having all that time. but after a while there seemed actually less time to do all the things i now wanted to do. stupid of me to have even wasted my time watching tv, and being lied to and being the object of (failed ) manipulations (not least of which is advertising). reclaim your life. switch off your tv.

If it was me, or if it was my husband, my brother, my friend, I would know that I can hold out hope for release. As any individual caring about another individual, and I am, I applaud Mr. Shalit's return. It provides hope of an easing of suffering. It is a momentous morally superior position to not leave anyone behind. However, there will very likely be undesired consequences to this moral position. It is these that we all fear. Often doing the right thing means suffering the consequences; this is the nature of war.

The "Me Me Me" is Netanyahu through and through, the Street however has won a battle with trepidation, I think the Street knows the price they will pay, but a mother's cry for her child outweighs one thousand misguided Arabs or politicians.... and hopefully our children in their protests will have affordable housing.... and what Yair's father would have said "Times they are a changing".

and paid a heavy price for which he is to be commended. you seem to resent that.

even tho this decision had the support of a large %age of the population partly because of the public relation campaign it will result in the blood shed of the same collective whtich supported it. the majority is not always right.the torah states "dont follow the majority to evil".

You turned your TV off, LOL, though your computer is on !!

There are many reasons why this government is failing -- and Netanyahu's "me me me" is proving it -- but this situation is better than in the not so distant past when elections were held every two years in Israel. Bibi Netanyahu beats Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak in his ability to survive as a PM. If he wasn't such a stable PM, Gilad Shalit would still be in prison today. So, even with my disdain for Netanyahu's right wing policies, I give him a lot of credit for his political savvy within the divided Israel.

article. Bibi showed great strength of character in his efforts. He was responding not so much to people marching in the streets so much as he was responding to events which played out on the Internet social media where it now only takes seconds to organize protests over cottage cheese or the lives of Israeli soldiers. The reality is that without the social media no one would know where to meet or march. Yair. like many others. forgets that Bibi has children and grandchildren and his emotions at Gilad's homecoming were those of a parent, not a Prime Minister. You are barking up the wrong tree this time, Yair. Bibi's actions were decisive and definitive and got results. The security situation that you and others are warning about may or may not ever happen, and threatening people with security issues is akin to those of George Bush scaring Americans into two useless wars with thousands of casualties and trillions of dollars in new debt. Israel owed its soldier the chance to come home. That is the IDF mandate and Bibi knows it even if you don't.

Anyone can read the comments and see that Lapid has an ego problem an order of magnitude more than Netanyahu http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2011/PM_Netanyahu_release_Gilad_Shalit_18-Oct-2011.htm

Simon Wiesenthal was someone determined, patient, with organizational ability that knew how to fight for years to achive extraordinary success. Please, dont tell us what allows or not our israeli political system.

With his "me, me, me" opinion articles,...

In the end, it WAS Bibi who had to make the final decision, so do give him some credit.

...only to have left wing policies implemented? Or are the masses confined to those who live in north tel aviv? Moron.

RArmchair politician.keep to what you do best, on tv. Dont vote for yair lapid. I dont trust him.

Democracy is not street rule, and not crowd rule, and not the rule of the masses. Democracy is a form of representative government. The major decisions are not made by the people in the streets but by the elected representatives of the government.

It may well be true that Yair Lapid writes beautiful books. well one at least, on his father. This doesn't mean his judgement is anything else but flawed. His theory is disingenuous and leads down a blind alley. Like it or not, it was Netanyahu and not the "street" that made the decision and the rest is just delusion.

Changing the electoral system is a must BUT YL is no political messiah. I used to think he was but no longer.PR skills are not enough.

I did it too. The news/internet is next. The way to live is to tend to your own business, carry a loaded gun 24/7, and be ready to use it.