Israel’s Heroes Will Protest Netanyahu’s Visit

Just about a year ago, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach shared a video of a group with Israeli flags protesting for Israeli democracy, with the caption “anti-Israel protesters”. Since I was among those protesting on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, I knew that it was not an “anti-Israel” protest but an anti-Netanyahu, pro-democracy protest. On October 8th, many of the people who stood at that “anti-Israel” protest got on flights and rushed to risk their lives to defend Israel. 

For very understandable reasons, when the pro-Israel community here in the United States sees people protesting against Netanyahu and the current Israeli government in the United  States, it is often assumed that those protesters are against Israel. Yet nothing like this past year has vindicated the millions of Israelis and diaspora Jews who protested against Netanyahu’s anti-Zionist coalition. 

The same coalition of  Netanyahu, who slept all too well on the night of October 7th, and failed the Jewish people in the days, weeks, and months that followed, would like us to believe that they represent Israel’s best interests. 

The Netanyahu who bends back over to keep funding corrupt anti-zionist Haredi politicians at the expense of Israeli patriots who left their jobs and businesses to join the IDF on October 7th, will try and convince the American people that he represents the interests of the Israeli people. The same post-Zionist Netanyahu who extended mandatory army service for soldiers who just fought in Gaza for close to a year, while working day and night to exempt Haredi men frequenting the bars of Jerusalem and the bowling alleys of Bnai Brak at night would like us to see him and some kind of a Zionist leader. 

The Netanyahu, whose cabinet and government have left hundreds of IDF funerals unattended, would like us to think of himself as someone representing Israel’s heroes. The Netanyahu, who could not be bothered to attend Shivas or hospital beds of victims of the October 7th massacre, would like to speak to Jewish organizations here in the U.S. as someone who cares for the Jewish people. 

The Netanyahu who has treated many families of hostages like I would not treat a used cars salesman, would like us to think he is the one thinking of how to get the hostages out. 

The same Netanyahu who decided to let Qatar send billions of dollars in cash stuffed into suitcases on private jets directly to Hamas’s hands in Gaza, funding the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust, would like us to believe that he is the hero fighting Hamas. 

The same Netanyahu, whose son Yair is enjoying a lavish lifestyle on the beaches of Miami at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer, would like Americans to think he is the one fighting to defend Israel. 

The same Netanyahu who ran to the nuclear bunker of an American billionaire while the children of Kibbutz Be’eri were being burned alive would like Americans to believe he is some kind of Israeli patriot–he isn’t. 

The same Netanyahu who allowed terrorism supporting Itamar Ben Gvir to take charge of Israel’s police and be a minister of domestic security, setting Israel’s internal security ablaze, would like us to think he is the responsible adult in the Middle East, and not just another pyromaniac.

If anyone had questions about how right the anti-Netanyahu protests were before October 7th, Netanyahu’s abjectly failed leadership over the past year, and his overseeing so much of the damage that has been done to Israel, post-October 7th, should be heartbroken to admit how right those protesters were. Sadly, when they held up signs that said: “save our start-up nation,” they knew exactly what they were talking about. 

So, if you are not able to come to Washington and protest against the Israeli version of Nicolae Ceaușescu and Muammar Gaddafi, remember when you see those protesting him, to say thank you. If you can’t say thank you for them protesting the man who helped bring on Israel biblical levels of destruction, thank them because they are likely the ones who dropped everything on October 7th and went to defend Israel without asking any questions, as pilots, as soldiers, logistics officers, and as true Israeli patriots.