Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party and currently serving as the Alternate Prime Minister of Israel and Minister of Foreign Affairs, made an international faux pas when wishing the USA a happy independence day; mistaking the stars and stripes for the Liberian flag. 

Lapid: 4th of July tweet

Lapid wrote in a tweet: “245 years of prosperity, freedom and independence. Congratulations to our best friend, America. Israel has no closer ally than the United States and the United States has no better friend than Israel.”

כששר החוץ לפיד חגג עצמאות לארה”ב עם דגל ליבריה (בקטן בסיום הכיתוב). pic.twitter.com/7T3KwrWr8w

— שלמה ריזל (@shlomo_rizel) July 4, 2021

Lapid posted an image of the Israeli flag, which he did accurately identify, and an image of the Liberian flag which, though it features red and white stripes, only has one star.

Lapid quickly took down the tweet, replacing it after fixing the error. Lapid has been Foreign Minister for three weeks but the mistake was glaring, especially in light of a statement released last week by the US State Department in which Lapid was quoted as saying, “There is no relationship more important to Israel than the United States of America.” Perhaps as a premonition of the erroneous tweet, Lapid also noted that “in the past few years, mistakes were made.” 

US-Liberia connection

The similarity between the flags of the USA and Liberia is intentional. Liberia began in the early 19th century as a settlement of the American Colonization Society (ACS), which believed black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. Between 1822 and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, more than 15,000 freed and free-born people of color in the US, along with 3,198 Afro-Caribbeans, relocated to Liberia. 

The Liberian constitution and flag were modeled after those of the US and English is the official language. The US flag has 13 alternating stripes, 7 red and 6 white, representing the original 13 states. The 50 stars stand for the 50 states of the union.

The Liberian flag features eleven stripes, six red stripes and five white stripes, symbolizing the11 men who signed the Liberia Declaration of Independence on 26 July 1847. The white star indicates that it was the first independent republic in Africa and the blue square is for the African continent.

The Liberian flag is actually commonly seen on many ships around the world as Liberia offers registration under its flag. Shipping companies do this to avoid taxes and restrictions that other countries enforce.  It is estimated that 1,700 foreign-owned ships fly the Liberian flag.

Lapid under fire

Lapid’s term as Foreign Minister is off to a rocky start. Last week, he was targeted by ridicule for a tweet containing an excerpt from a speech he made at the opening of Israel’s embassy in Abu Dhabi.

 “With all its neighbors,”Lapid tweeted. “We aren’t going anywhere. The Middle East is our home. We’re here to stay. We call on all the countries of the region to recognize that. And to come talk to us.”

 Likud MK Ariel Kallner responded by tweeting, ““Listen Yair, until you get a spokesperson who knows English, just write in Hebrew and run it through Google Translate. It’ll still turn out better than this embarrassment.”

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair Netanyahu, also ridiculed Lapid’s tweet, calling it ‘eighth grade English’.

“Is this real? What is this eighth grade English coming from a Foreign Minister? The fact that he didn’t pass high school English is his problem, not the state’s. Why doesn’t he hire an English spokesperson who can write his tweets in English for him? What an embarrassment.”

Lapid achieved his position when he formed a unity government with his political polar opposites, Naftali Bennett. The coalition included the Joint Arab List and was seen by many of the right-wing voters as a cynical power grab by Bennett that betrayed his electorate.