The Israel Prize is generally considered the state’s highest cultural honor, and the televised award ceremony is traditionally watched by a large number of Israelis. This year, however, with Miriam Peretz, a bereaved mother, among the winners, the ceremony generated even greater interest. Indeed, the speech Peretz delivered at the ceremony on April 19, concluding Independence Day events, touched many hearts.

Ongoing discussion about the speech days after its delivery and the idea gaining momentum that she should be appointed president of Israel suggest how much Israelis long for leaders who can heal the nation’s wounds. The simple messages of her speech — among them unity, dedication and love of the other — succeeded in breaking through the walls of cynicism standing today. People on the left and the right came together to shed a tear and share a sense of common destiny.

Near the end of the speech, Peretz touched wisely on the dangers posed by venomous political polarization, which has already led to one political assassination: “No single side has an exclusive claim to love of the people and the homeland. … There is room for everyone in the State of Israel, from across the spectrum. … If you miss one piece of the puzzle, the picture will not be complete, so I will not give up any part of my people.”

It is hard not to compare the text of Peretz’s speech to the speech delivered the preceding evening by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the ceremony of the lighting of the torches on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem at the Independence Day opening ceremony. His speech — the result of an ugly feud between Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and encouraged by Culture Minister Miri Regev — left nothing more than a sour taste. Edelstein had rejected the request that Netanyahu speak at the ceremony, where traditionally only the Knesset speaker delivers an address.