I say this knowing full well that many people I deeply
respect might choke at even the suggestion. They have expressed unmitigated hatred of the man for good reason, blaming him for many of the ills besieging Israel
right now. And, by
extension, the Jewish people all over the world. I completely understand where
they are coming from. In fact, I could probably repeat verbatim all the serious
problems they have with him, which they believe have harmed Israel’s reputation
almost irredeemably.
To cite just a few:
...aligning with extremist right-wing parties to form a
coalition;
...allowing Charedim to avoid conscription in order to keep
them in his coalition;
...using ruthless tactics to stay in power;
...alienating colleagues and former supporters for political
purposes (he probably has more political enemies than any politician Israel has
ever had);
...being indicted for
corruption, for which he is currently standing trial;
...his unpopular attempt to overhaul Israel’s judicial system;
...insulting a sitting president on more than one occasion,
thereby alienating members of that president’s political party and reducing
bipartisan support for Israel;
...sharing responsibility for the October 7th massacre
by virtue of a mistaken policy of appeasement toward Hamas;
...his heavy handed prosecution of the war in Gaza which has caused
a rise in antisemitism worldwide;
...and being quite arrogant about his own leadership ability.
To put it more simply, he is seen as an amoral power-hungry narcissist who
would sell his mother to stay in power.
While there is truth to some of these concerns, I remain
convinced that Benjamin Netanyahu is the most consequential leader Israel has
ever had—in more ways than one.
Netanyahu is also Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. How could a man so reviled by much of the Israeli public, fellow politicians, and by so many people worldwide and about half of congress - be elected prime minister for so long...?
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