[Salon] Have American Jews pushed Israel toward extremism or moderation?




Have American Jews pushed Israel toward extremism or moderation?

Gideon LevySep 28, 2025 

"We're not done yet," he boomed, threatening like some Mafia boss the dying Gaza Strip at the United Nations General Assembly, which was as empty as a theater that's been screening the same movie for too many weeks. "We're not done yet," he also threatened Israelis who want him out of their lives already. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech Friday highlighted again the fact that we are not done yet with him and that he is not done yet with the Gaza Strip and with us.

Despite the bizarre lapel pin with a QR code linking to images and videos of the October 7 massacre, the childish gimmicks, the pop quiz, the map and the loudspeakers in Gaza, he is still a first-rate demagogue: a mass murderer, the No. 1 most-wanted – the very fact that he is allowed on the dais at the UN is a scandal – posing as Mother Teresa. 

Anyone listening to him who knew nothing about what his country is doing in Gaza and the West Bank might be tempted to think that the Israel Defense Forces is the Salvation Army, that Israel was competing with UNICEF in aiding needy children, and that he himself is a lifelong follower of Mahatma Gandhi's teachings. Yes, Netanyahu still has it. 

The beginning boded well. The mass exodus from the hall should have shamed every Israeli, finally causing them to ask: Perhaps Israel did something wrong after all? It's safe to assume that most Israelis would respond, "It's the antisemitism, stupid." 

Then came some authenticity: The prime minister proudly related how Israel hammered, destroyed, crushed, crippled and devastated the entire surrounding region. Dozens of synonyms for annihilation. He used his customary black marker to draw check marks on last year's map, covering the entire zone of destruction and perhaps ones to come as well. What an honor. Only Gaza was missing. And the West Bank. Maybe he forgot them.

A group of sycophants – particularly small this year, without all the wealthy Jews of previous years – applauded; the chief of staff of the Prime Minister's Office, Tzachi Braverman, cast severe looks all around, making sure that no one refrained. 

Then came the demagoguery, the propaganda and the unbearable lies, even by his standards. "You saw the picture of Evyatar David. Emaciated, forced to dig his own grave," he said. Did you, prime minister, see the picture of Marwan Barghouti in an Israeli prison? 

Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Friday.

Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Friday.Credit: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

Did you see the human skeleton, this man who could have brought peace? You've turned good into evil … and evil into good, he preached in Biblical terms to European countries that have recognized a Palestinian state. 

By good you meant Israel, Netanyahu? How did your hand not shake when you wrote these words? How did your voice not tremble when you said them? Is it good to kill 1,000 babies under the age of 1 and 20,000 children overall? To create 40,000 new orphans? To systematically obliterate Gaza, leaving not a single stone standing? 

If that is your good, then what is evil? Is it humane to speak of allowing aid equal to 3,000 calories a day for every resident into the Strip? Is mentioning a beautiful young couple from the Israeli embassy in Washington that was murdered nearby legitimate for the person who is responsible for killing tens of thousands of beautiful young couples in Gaza – killing that he isn't done with, by his own admission? 

Is it fair to claim (without stating the source) that nearly 90 percent of Palestinians supported the October 7 attack, without saying how many Jewish Israelis support the genocide, some in joy and some in silence? The only true figure he quoted was that over 90 percent of Israeli lawmakers voted against the imposition of a Palestinian state. How true and how shameful.

The pinnacle of this mendacious demagoguery came in the defense against claims of genocide. Did the Nazis ask the Jews kindly to leave, he asked, comparing Israel to the Nazis. Well, Mr. Netanyahu, the Nazis expelled Jews before the extermination began. 

Between 1939 and 1941 they expelled and deported Jews from Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria to occupied Poland. Their Madagascar Plan recalls your and Donald Trump's Riviera plan. The Armenian holocaust also began with mass expulsions.

We're not done yet, said my prime minister, the prime minister of everyone.



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