https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-israels-sake-netanyahu-has-to-go/
He failed us on October 7, and every day since by refusing to answer for it. He clung to power, and now promises the same shameful coalition, with the same divisive and dangerous policies
First and foremost: Israel was traumatized and changed forever by the Hamas massacre, and by the political and military leadership’s still unfathomable failure to see it coming and prevent it. The man on whom principal responsibility falls, the prime minister, is the only central figure who still has not acknowledged that responsibility and stepped aside.
Most national leaders who had failed to prevent the worst catastrophe in their country’s history, despite an abundance of evidence that it was imminent, would have resigned immediately. Especially if they had ignored multiple warnings from their security chiefs in the months before the attack, blocked repeated recommendations to target enemy leaders, championed the funding of the terror-controlled neighboring entity, and shared the tragic mis-assessment that the enemy was deterred.
But no leader whose true priority was the existential well-being of their nation would have obdurately remained in office for three more years, prevented the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into everything that had gone wrong, attempted relentlessly to pin blame on anybody and everybody but himself, and then sought reelection.
You know what the hardest part about living through history is? Eventually hearing kids 20 years from now talking about the events and realizing how poorly it was taught.
ReplyDeleteI have students who tell me that Ronald Reagan was a disasterous president and Margaret Thatcher is the worst leader that the UK ever had. I tell them that they were, in fact, the saviours of the Western world by their efforts to end the USSR and that Western liberals have never forgiven them for that.
20 years from now Israeli children will be taught that Bibi was this slavering monster who purposefully brought Israel to the brink of ruin for his own evil reasons. Editorials like this will be trotted out as proof.
The military says they warned Bibi about October 7. Here's what gets left out. Many of those leaders were vocally anti-Bibi before the war, especially during the Judicial Coup protests. What's more, they'd been warning him for almost 10 years about October 7. Ten years they warned that a massive attack was imminent. Never happened for 10 years. What did you want from Bibi? To know that this time the same warning was now suddenly relevant?
Should he have resigned? Name me an Israeli leader who could handle both Biden and Trump the way he did. If Bennett or Lapid had been PM then the war would've ended after a month the minute the Arabs started crying about casualties and claiming Israel was bombing hospitals and schools. Israel would've been forced to the negotiating table and released 10 000 terrorists to get most - who are you kidding, it wouldn't have been all - of the hostages back and promise no more fighting with Hamas. Like him or not, only Bibi had the guts and strategy to handle Biden and then flatter Trump into definitive support to end the war.
As for "resigned immediately", did Golda Meir? She hung on for months after the war until she was finally quietly pushed out. Why is Bibi held to a different standard?
At most one could say that once the final ceasefire was signed and the hostages were returned that he should then have resigned since the war was essentially over. But "immediately resigned"? That's been the Left's call from before the war even since they figured out they'll never win another election.
He is still responsible, and the polls will probably take him out
DeleteIt's all about who gets the vote out.
DeleteIf the Arabs show up in large numbers they'll be the kingmakers
If the Chareidi woman show up and vote for that new party, they'll make it into the Knesset.
Likud has a dedicated base. They'll show up.
The really random factor remains the number of leftist Israelis who abandoned the country but want to show up to ensure the election result is one they like.