Foreign Minister Yair Lapid delivered a brief but contentious speech before the 7th Global Forum on Combatting Anti-Semitism on July 14, and his remarks are still the subject of heated debate and discussion.

Lapid’s many critics, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, argued that the speech damaged the struggle against anti-Semitism. Politicians and opinion-makers, mainly from the right, called what Lapid said “strange” and “post-modern,” claiming that it played straight into the hands of those who deny that the very phenomenon of anti-Semitism exists.

In contrast, others praised what they called a groundbreaking speech that broke with the old, familiar paradigm of Jewish victimhood. In that sense, Lapid contributed to the struggle against anti-Semitism, they said.

Lapid is the son of former Minister of Justice Tommy Joseph Lapid, a Holocaust survivor, who spent much of his time combatting anti-Semitism, and so cannot be accused of acting out of malice. As a journalist and author, Lapid is a skilled wordsmith who knows how to make complex ideas accessible, and he did so in his speech.