That is easy to say for anyone living in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. There has been relative quiet in the north in the past eight years, but Israelis are increasingly fed up with “relative quiet,” and the dozens of cease-fire violations from Lebanon the past eight years do not promote trust in the government.
It is easy to throw darts at the Prime Minister, who faces situations and pressures that are not known to the public, but his history as a political mastermind without national leadership has lost him the confidence of the people.
Netanyahu could have overwhelmed the people with a quote from the Bible, which he likes to read, by reciting from Devarim 7:22, “And the Lord, your God, will drive out those nations from before you, little by little. You will not be able to destroy them quickly, lest the beasts of the field outnumber you.”
If he simply had told the truth Wednesday night and admitted that Israel decided to accept a near-term truce rather than paving heavy losses and an uncertain outcome if it had gone for broke, Netanyahu would have won a lot more support instead of trying to fool everyone and ending up with fooling only himself.