In his recent pronouncement, King Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) stated unambiguously that the majority of Israelis are behind him in the prosecution of the current war in all its various theaters of action. This may indeed be true. Some of my very Left-wing acquaintances agreed with the need to destroy the nest of evildoers known as Hamas. But between that and stating that everyone is in agreement with Netanyahu is a far cry from reality.
According to the latest ratings, King Bibi scores a mere 20% of supporters among the general public in Israel. Netanyahu may indeed be the most detested leader ever to occupy the seat of ultimate power in the country. His indecisions, silences, and overweening attitude, especially toward the Palestinian population but also toward his political enemies and rivals, make his time in office more of a burden than a blessing to most Israelis. He helped unite the opposition across the board, as was witnessed by the never-ending protests of hundreds of thousands of citizens that spilled into the streets.
His latest attempt to defend his crumbling record has, unfortunately for him, brought him head to head with US President Joe Biden. Biden’s attitude toward Bibi can be summarized by his off-the-record remarks about the prime minister, and repeating them would be to invoke a series of bad-mouthing not heard before in relation to Israel’s leaders. Now Netanyahu is no doubt praying for the health and success of Donald Trump in the upcoming elections in the US.
The lies that Bibi has cultivated during his long terms of office were set out by Beiga Shochat in an interview before his recent death. He told veteran journalist Nahum Barnea how he had caught Netanyahu falsely attributing to himself a successful economic measure that Shochat had introduced to the Knesset two years beforehand! Since then, said the very amiable and honest former finance minister, he could not trust anything that Netanyahu said.
The tragedy is that ultimately, Netanyahu has lied to himself. Netanyahu, the conservative political realist, has entered into a phase of delusional fantasy, and the quicker he snaps out of it the better – not only for himself but also for the population at large.
If he truly believes that the country is behind him, all he has to do is call for new elections. The public would then let him know if he is right or wrong.
Rabbis speak out
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef’s recent public declaration that rather than join the army, haredi youth should leave the country, was met with disbelief, not to say outrage, by the majority of the population. This did not include the prime minister who, as he has done on other occasions, greeted this outburst with deafening silence. Why should he threaten his cobbled-together coalition by speaking out against an integral part of his supporters?
It is unfortunate for him that Rabbi Yosef’s specific command goes against every tenet of Zionist thought, including, one assumed, that of the prime minister. But Bibi, if he sees the contradiction, is careful not to show it. That such a statement should emerge from the holy mouth of the Sephardi sage would be laughable if its implications were not so serious. The fact that the prime minister decided not to say anything about it – as if it was a religious matter that didn’t concern him – is further proof of the lack of vision in the current government.
Bibi could have justifiably fired the rabbi from his official post. But he feared losing crucial support. In Hebrew, this is known as siyata dishmaya – support from Heaven. Rabbi Yosef does not have a brilliant biography. His father, the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, preferred another son, Rabbi Avraham Yosef, the former chief rabbi of Holon, as someone more appropriate to take over his mantle. But for internal political reasons, he was passed over for Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef. Neither was Rabbi Yitzhak the first to voice such an opinion. His father said almost the same thing in January 2013, although he framed it in terms of a wish (or a prayer) that yeshiva learners would not be forced to go outside the Holy Land in order to study Torah but might just weigh up this option if the powers that be did not free them from this awkward burden.
And just in case we thought this fiat was restricted to our Sephardi brethren, we find that Rabbi Menachem Shach, leader of the Lithuanian strain of the haredi community, issued a similar warning in 1988 that if a decree was passed to serve in the Zionist army, then those young men whose Torah study was their whole life would be forced to seek a location outside the Land of Israel to continue their studies. Maybe on the moon?
What is their fear? Simply, that their Torah learning will not be enough to defend themselves against the lure of a non-yeshiva, and maybe even a completely secular lifestyle. To support their claim, they cite the statistic that 42% of graduates of religious high schools throw off their religious observance in the army. Does it not occur to them that their Torah study might lack something so attractive that they would not desire any other way of life? Apparently not. Neither does the sages’ observation that only the combination of Torah and work guarantees the future of the Torah. As it is written, “Torah study without an occupation will in the end fail and lead to sin” (Ethics of the Fathers, 2:2).
Saving the coalition
Netanyahu did speak out against the official report regarding the collapse of the tribunals on Mount Meron in which 45 people died two Lag Ba’Omers ago, due to faulty structures at the site. The officials charged that, contrary to his own version of events, Netanyahu did indeed know of the risks involved but preferred to put the blame on others for their negligence. This has been a consistent theme throughout his long regime (he first became prime minister in 1996), so it should not have surprised anyone. In this case, his silence was joined by the haredim themselves. After all, why should they be the ones who disturb this fragile coalition?
Localized violence
A good friend of mine has been an activist for many years in the West Bank, specifically in southern Hebron. There, he has witnessed and reported on the continuing harassment of the local Arab population, many of whom live in caves, but a good number live in the surrounding villages. The pattern has been fairly consistent.. The Israeli settlers – mainly young people – set up an illegal settlement from where they spread out to the villages and start their violent action, setting fire to cars, breaking into houses, tormenting the local population with threats, and so forth. In his latest blog, he writes of settlers from a new illegal outpost who “walked into the nearby village of Mu’arajat and dug a line of open graves near the school – a ominous sign of what they hope awaits their Palestinian neighbors. In October, the outpost settlers from across the main road were stopping Palestinian cars and telling them, ‘You have to leave within 24 hours. If you don’t, we’ll come and kill you.’ In addition, the army has declared the vast grazing grounds north of the road to be off limits. How many times have we followed the shepherds there, often with many herds spread over the wadi? And now, after the rains, there is plenty of green grass for the sheep. But the Mu’arajat villagers can only look at it from afar, with longing.”
The grotesque act of digging grave sites has the blessing of Tweedledum and Tweedledee (aka Messrs. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich) and, by implication, Netanyahu – who is more worried about his coalition and his own skin than these nefarious and outrageous acts of brutality. This is the wild Middle East, where the side with the biggest gun wins. At least in the short run.
The American influence
Much has been made of the influence of America on the political life of Israel. I was speaking with Israeli author Haim Be’er recently, and he gave a sigh of relief when I confessed to him that I was not an American but made aliyah from Britain. “They are so vulgar,” he exclaimed. I’m sure he did not mean this about all Americans, but as a generalization there is something in his remark. There is something in the character of the “ugly American” which has unfortunately found its way into Israel. Our prime minister, for example, received much of his education in the Land of the Free, and it shows when he speaks, in his arrogance and his sense of being the best, the invincible, the one who is always right, one who brooks no opposition. It will be an irony if the real Americans show him who has the real power in the world – and who should show respect to whom. ■