It is normal not to take Yair Lapid seriously, to consider him an empty politician who unashamedly appeals to the “zeitgeist” and changes his costume according to his electoral needs.

Zeev Sternhell, a historian who studies fascism, dismissively called Lapid “a nobody.” And who knows better than Sternhell how much damage nobodies can cause. Lapid’s arena is not the Knesset, where he is serving out his sentence in the opposition until his time comes. He is not trying to build up the parliamentary reputation of his party either. As fitting for a one-man show who has designated himself to become prime minister, Lapid consistently brands himself as the sane alternative to Benjamin Netanyahu.

All the signs show that Lapid recently reached the conclusion that his political conduct has become bland and boring, and he needs a sort of shot in the arm of hatred and incitement to stir things up a bit. For a while he has been flirting with the old methods of manipulating the truth, and has given up ethical limitations such as a commitment to facts. And now a golden opportunity has crossed his path: The attacks on Breaking the Silence.

The debate over the video clips shown on Channel 2 has been conducted throughout in a crude, predictable fashion in which Lapid feels at home, and it includes the words “danger,” “security,” “enemies” and “subversion.” Words filled with the proper sentiments, and there is nothing like their use to position the speaker at the appropriate point on the axis of patriotism and love of Israel.

If we add to all this the fear that the materials being collected by Breaking the Silence will reach hostile hands, the game is almost predetermined. And when the results are guaranteed and there is no risk, that is where you will find Yair Lapid. He has built his political career on a personality cult and adolescent veneration, and after he saw in the previous election how these are losing their strength, he decided to exploit this opportunity to the very last drop of pathos, whatever the results might be.

Thus, when he enthusiastically declared that the country must defend its soldiers from this organization, which he said has no right to exist whatsoever, Lapid was effectively saying that the last stop for the members of Breaking the Silence – after they are defined as hostile and undesirable – is jail; and he knowingly entered new territory for propaganda.

The presentation of political persecution as a form of self-defense is a regular practice of nobodies who hope to be crowned king, and one of the techniques of fascistic thinking. In using these methods, Lapid is destroying the liberal community, which views itself as the moderate political center, leans towards tolerance, is politically involved as it deems necessary and appreciates its bourgeoisie quality of life above all else. If recent polls reflect the true trend, Lapid is deceiving and stealing over 20 Knesset seats, including many of those who have despaired over the Zionist Union, and is pushing them into unconscious nationalism.

At the moment it is hard to see a greater danger than Lapid’s manipulations of his own camouflage. No one suspects he is Netanyahu or Naftali Bennett. After all, he is their alternative, he represents the moderate Israel that yearns for normality and understands it can only be achieved through a diplomatic compromise.

If this backbone of Israeli society begins to consider self-criticism a national danger, and critics as enemies of the state, the difference between this group and the nationalist camp will fade completely. At that point it will be possible to say we have arrived at the advanced stage of our moral collapse, and give credit for this to Lapid.