Netanyahu the Mafia Boss Takes Pride in What He Ought to Be Ashamed Of
Two men, wearing ties and smiling, stride through the lobby of an office building. Their English is polished. "I'm alive, but I have this card," one says, pulling out of his jacket pocket a punch card like the ones that were once used in Israel on buses, which he has never ridden.
"Don't read it," he tells his companion, pretending to hide the card from him. The second man averts his gaze. "Today I erased two names on this punch card, and you see how many more to go on this batch," the first says, nevertheless sharing a secret.
"You know what the good news is?" the second one says, "My name is not on the punch card." The two burst into tension-relieving laughter. "You're on the list of the good guys," the first reassures his friend. "Shoulder to shoulder, we're getting rid of these lunatic crazies," he says, pulling the card out of his pocket again. "We're wiping them out," he boasts. "I love it," his friend replies.
Not a crime series, not a mafia movie, not underworld assassinations, not hired killers. The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who envisions a Jewish state from the Nile to the Euphrates in their name and likeness, take pride in acts of murder. There's no other way to describe it. Netanyahu posted the video on his social media accounts, proud to be a top mobster. He plays his role well.
But Netanyahu doesn't need to demonstrate acting talent: The video is true to life, not fiction, but documentary. Israel as a crime organization, Netanyahu as the mafia boss. He and the video makers deserve praise for their honesty and willingness to tell it as it is.
Israel as a mafia. It ought to be ashamed of being proud of it. Bulgaria once used poison umbrellas to eliminate dissidents, and is now ashamed of it. Israel kills in airstrikes and takes pride in it.
While it rejoices, the imagination takes off, and the media and the public tremble with excitement at every assassination. Israel has already eliminated a significant portion of leaderships surrounding it. The cemeteries of the Middle East are full to bursting with the graves of statesmen and commanders of scientists, journalists and also intellectuals that Israel has assassinated. From the poet Ghassan Kanafani in Beirut in 1972 to the top Iranian security official Ali Larijani in Tehran in 2026, Israel's death cards are filled, until they are replaced with new ones.
The assassination target, who was not assassinated because he had never been born, nor was the assassination victim without a successor. There's only one difference between crime series and real-life assassinations: On Netflix, sometimes there's room left to question the legitimacy of the acts. In Israeli true crime, there are no such questions. They are seen not only as legitimate but also as a source of pride.
What is the best thing Israel has done in the past two years? The pager operation? National pride for having maimed hundreds and killed dozens? Or perhaps the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah and his men, Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohammed, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his students from Khan Yunis to Tehran. What a good world we have created.
Israeli media pundits vie to guess the next target and the one after that, drawing Xs. The prime minister and the ambassador shoot a stomach-churning video about targeted assassinations. "I love it," the ambassador says, his eyes sparkling. But beyond the pretentious "how lovely are thy tents" and what heroes we are, one cannot escape the truth: Assassination is a euphemism for murder. Its planners and executors are murderers. A state that kills leaders in such numbers cannot be a respectable member of the community of nations.
When the prime minister boasts about his death punch card, it's no wonder that Border Policemen murder a Palestinian family for fun. When the U.S. ambassador says he "loves it," one should not be surprised by the disgust his country inspires.
War is an ugly business. Political assassinations are not an inevitable part of them; they are acts of murder.