After a year in which our politicians took us to two costly and dirty elections, they have plenty to apologize for.
It is said that on Yom Kippur, God forgives sins between man and God, but that sins between man and man need to be forgiven by the victims themselves.
The victims in this case are the voters who continue to suffer while their leaders continue to fail to form a government that will serve them.
So what should the politicians tell the voters on the eve of Yom Kippur? Here are 10 politicians and their “apologies.”
Benjamin Netanyahu: I am sorry I have not made the compromises needed for a government to be formed. The people of Israel looked to me for leadership, and I’ve let them down. There is still time for me to prevent a third election within a year, and I won’t let it happen.
Benny Gantz: I am sorry I have not made the compromises needed for a government to be formed. The people of Israel looked to me for leadership, and I’ve let them down. There is still time for me to prevent a third election within a year, and I won’t let it happen.
Avigdor Liberman: I am sorry I didn’t join the government after the April election to stop there being another one. I won three more seats, but the public suffered. Whenever I am angry next, I will play tennis instead of carrying out my wrath.
Yair Lapid: I am sorry I gave up on my rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office three weeks after the election instead of three weeks or months before it. There was never any chance it could have happened anyway. Maybe if I would have left then, we could have won more seats and been able to form a government.
Ayelet Shaked: I am sorry I took my voters on two adventures that didn’t work. I want to be in Likud, and if that means taking time off from politics, joining the party and working my way up, so be it.
Rafi Peretz: I am sorry I didn’t follow the advice of Rabbi Akiva in Ethics of the Fathers: “Silence is a safeguarding fence for wisdom.” Had I taken that advice, I would not have given interviews in which I made extreme statements that turned my voters off and increased baseless hatred.
Ehud Barak: I am sorry for not retiring like other 77-year-olds do. The public clearly didn’t want me back. My comeback accomplished nothing. After the first report tying me to American pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, I should have realized I was a political liability and given up.
Amir Peretz: I am sorry I promised that I would take 15 seats away from the Right. I only won six seats, just like Avi Gabbay. That doesn’t make me much of a leader. I should have quit the night of the election and gone back to Sderot to grow my mustache in peace and quiet.
Yaakov Litzman: I am sorry I didn’t persuade the Gerrer Rebbe to accept the conscription bill. It is a really good bill for my constituency, much more lenient than we could have ever expected. If only I had compromised, no one would have had an excuse to initiate either of the elections.
Itamar Ben-Gvir: I am sorry I thought too highly of myself. If I would have been more modest, I would have accepted a realistic slot on the Yamina list and not thrown away 83,609 votes or given those voters false hope.