After Spending Years Polarizing Israel, Netanyahu Weaponizes Unity Against Dissent - Israel News - Haaretz.com
In a comment made on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inadvertently revealed what he thinks about calls to move up elections to replace his failed government, calls that most of the public supports.
"There is a date for elections – another few years," he said, in reference to their original scheduled date in November 2026. A moment later, he clumsily attempted to amend his statement: "I'm not suggesting dealing with that during the war," he said. "At the moment, we need unity."
Not only is there nothing more ridiculous than Benjamin Netanyahu when he talks about unity. There's also nothing more dangerous. This word, a reference to a resource that he has seen to it to pummel for decades, is now the weapon that he is resorting to against anyone who's against him. In other words, most of the public.
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This declaration of intent – that his government of blood will endure until its legal limit (a limit which if it were in his power, wouldn't exist) and not a minute before – should already generate a massive turnout of protesters on Tel Aviv's Kaplan Street this coming Saturday night of the likes of the height of the protests over the attempted judicial coup.
Protesters in Tel Aviv's Kaplan junctionm on Saturday.Credit: Itay Ron
At that time, they were fighting for Israel's democratic identity, which Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Knesset member Simcha Rothman and 61 other partners in crime were seeking to destroy.
Now the order of the day to quickly drive out the man responsible for the most horrible year in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust becomes much more urgent – a matter of life and death.
He casually dismissed Friday's terrorist attack in the south near Kiryat Malakhi, in which two people were killed and others wounded, with the longstanding _expression_ that the entire country is the front line.
During the short tenure of the preceding government, Netanyahu, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and their colleagues gladly danced on the blood of every fatality.
Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid was correct when he said that if the October 7 massacre had occurred while he was in office, Netanyahu would have been sending his people to burn down his house on top of him.
Netanyahu's performance at his news conference Saturday evening confirmed what everyone had already known. For the head of the current failed government, the October 7 war provides a platform for another political campaign featuring all the familiar hallmarks: lies, incitement, fanning passions – and diversion.
Activists in the "Kippur 73' Veterans" group protest outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in Caesarea, Israel, earlier this month.Credit: David Bachar
He devoted considerable time of his speech to a meeting with wounded soldiers, all of which was designed to introduce a marginal occurrence in which someone purportedly asked a soldier who had lost a leg how he dared meet with the prime minister.
That itself was the lead up to closing remarks in which Netanyahu unveiled the real pretext for his news conference – a whiny attack in which he made himself out to be the victim of biased media outlets that aren't "investigating" the sources of funding for the billboard and social media campaign against him. Instead, he said, they're dealing with nonsense.
For instance, responsibility for the October 7 massacre, funding for Hamas, how warnings from defense officials were ignored, the creation of division among the people, the erosion of Israeli deterrence and of Israel's international standing. Trivial things.
He is well aware who the heads are of the campaign that's driving his family in Caesarea (and Miami) crazy.
An interview with them was featured on Haaretz's Hebrew edition on Friday. Their resources are partially from crowdfunding and partly from well-to-do Israelis who care. But for any dictator, in essence or in actuality, any _expression_ of criticism, protest or anger is considered an attack on the country, its resilience and its "unity."
As Vladimir Putin, his object of admiration, seeks to stamp out mass protest over the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny by force, Netanyahu is stirring up his phalanxes against anyone who dares criticize him. If he only could, he would lock them all up.
The billboard campaign under the slogan "You're the head, you're guilty" is entirely transparent, democracy at its best. There are no foreign billionaires behind it. There's no illegal funding passing through questionable channels.
The attempt to portray it as murky, as corrupt, is as pitiful as the person levying the criticism. And the responses are healthy. Social media is exploding with messages about donations.
Netanyahu's manipulation is breaking all records. Again, he's boasting about how he authorized last week's mission that rescued two hostages from Rafah in Gaza.
Louis Norberto Har, 70, and Fernando Marman, 60, reuinte with their families after being rescued from Gaza last week.Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit
He hasn't taken responsibility for prior operations that he authorized that ended in the death of hostages. Because ultimately, it all revolves around him. Like that meeting with bereaved families at which his wife, Sara, thanked them for having the courage and taking the trouble "and came to strengthen the prime minister."
As at his previous news conferences, this paragon of "unity" is meticulously choosing whom among the war dead to highlight and whom to ignore.
Those who merit the honor are almost always identified with the right wing and with the religious Zionist community. Without even blushing under his heavy layer of makeup, from one side of his mouth, he exalts the unity prevailing among tank and armored personnel carrier crews. But on the other hand, he's working to advance a draft evasion bill for the ultra-Orthodox community, which has been in his corner in any event.
Benjamin Netanyahu has already proven that from his standpoint, there is no price that he won't pay or any boundary that he won't cross for his own survival. His vacuousness and cynicism have taken the country to the limits. If he isn't stopped, if he isn't thrown out of here, he'll easily push it into the abyss.