The NY Times on Wednesday invited a group of dyed-in-the-wool anti-Netanyahu extremists who have been leading efforts to topple him since 2013, if not earlier, to publish an op-ed calling on the US Congress to cancel the PM’s appearance before a joint session of US lawmakers on July 24 (Netanyahu Does Not Speak for Us. Congress Should Disinvite Him.).
The op-ed authors are the Weizman Institute’s David Harel, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, Sharon’s agent of chaos against Jewish life in Judea and Samaria Talia Sasson, “Jewish bodies will float in the Yarkon” coup plotter Ehud Barak, Nobel Prize winner and Viagra-substitute promoter Aaron Ciechanover, and author David Grossman who has been identified with the wacky left for decades.
To start, it is common that in a democracy, the leader of the parliamentary majority often does not represent the folks across the aisle. So to demand that Congress kill Bibi’s invitation because his views differ from Ehud Barak and Tamir Pardo––both of whom served under him––is not reasonable.
But the gang of six Israeli leftists are advancing the argument that “Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance in Washington will not represent the State of Israel and its citizens, and it will reward his scandalous and destructive conduct toward our country.”
Seeing as there is a scientist in the group, one should expect reliable proof to the claim in the op-ed that Netanyahu “is driving Israel downhill at an alarming speed, to the extent that we may eventually lose the country we love.” This is because, after nine months of fighting, “Mr. Netanyahu has failed to come up with a plan to end the war in Gaza and has been unable to gain the freedom of scores of hostages.”
Even those NY Times who devote only five minutes a day to reading updates from the Middle East know that Netanyahu’s government has achieved the release of dozens of hostages, through a deal with Hamas as well as IDF action. As to his plan to end the war in Gaza, the PM has gone on the record just this week, saying the fighting phase is winding down, among other reasons to free up IDF units for a potential confrontation up north. Netanyahu also insisted that he would not acquiesce to a hostage deal that would require ending the pursuit of Hamas’s destruction.
On June 4, 1940, another PM, Sir Winston Churchill, appeared before the House of Commons at a point in history when most of Europe was being swept under Nazi rule, and vowed:
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
June 4, 1940, was nine months almost to the day after Germany’s invasion of Poland. The British Army managed to escape the continent by a miracle, and the nation was still bracing itself for the Blitz that would begin two months later. And no one, not the Labour Party, and not even the secretly or openly Nazi sympathizers in Buckingham Palace, would have dreamed of posting an op-ed in the NY Times besmirching their prime minister.
And so, for these completely marginal figures in Israel’s crazy left, who these days aren’t able to enlist as many as 5,000 protesters and so have switched to violence and clashes with the police in the streets – for them to complain that Netanyahu has not yet won the war is as infantile and entitled as the “Peace Now” slogan which to date has drowned Israel in rivers of blood since the Oslo Accords.
The gang of six also writes: “Mr. Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, whose support Mr. Netanyahu needs to maintain his government, are strongly opposed to stopping the war in Gaza, even for a temporary truce. They demand that the Gaza Strip be conquered and filled with new settlements.”
Except that on Monday, when asked about resettling Gaza, Netanyahu was adamant against the idea, calling it “unrealistic.” He was chided by many on the right who criticized the fact that their PM opted not to start a whole new war with the White House. And this is why I am happy that Bibi is my PM today, even though I never voted for him.
Sasson, Barak, and Pardo also report that “A large portion of Israelis have lost faith in Mr. Netanyahu’s government. He is clinging to power thanks to a tenuous parliamentary majority. That majority ignores the plight of tens of thousands of Israelis displaced in the south after the Hamas attack and in the north because of attacks by Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the families of the hostages, a powerful force now in Israel.”
If by a large portion of Israelis, they mean about 100,000, and by a tenuous majority they mean an unwavering 53.3%, and by if by ignoring the displaced Israelis they mean a reliable plan to provide them with adequate lodging, food, medical care, and education, they are right.
In short, since 2017, a coalition of extreme leftists, most Supreme Court judges, disappointed political hacks, Israel’s wealthy, and their controlled mass media, has been trying to unseat Netanyahu because he represents the country’s right-wing and religious majority. This coalition of good old boys who sees its demographic prospects slipping is appalled by the idea that folks like Ben Gvir and Smotrich are rising, riding a popular wave of national devotion to Jewish tradition and right-wing values (you know, families made up of Mom and Dad, circumcising you male children, selling your Chometz on Pesach).
“His supporters in Israel will be emboldened by his appearance in Congress to insist that the war continue, which will further distance any deal to secure the release of the hostages,” the gang of six concludes.
Amen.
