King Bibi’s tragic flaw has caught up with him
If I had the patience and talent to write a tragedy like Shakespeare or Sophocles (which I don’t), I would call it “King Bibi.”
Bibi Netanyahu has all the admirable attributes of the prime character in such tragedies, like Hamlet, Macbeth, and Oedipus. Unfortunately, he has a tragic flaw which stems from these attributes – a tragic flaw which has surfaced recently and which threatens to bring his downfall.
Bibi’s attributes are many, both currently and in his past. While Israel has no royalty, prime minister is close enough for the purposes of writing a modern tragedy. Moreover, he is VERY smart and well educated; my strong suspicion is that he is used to being the smartest person in the room, a characteristic he shares with Barack Obama. He was truly heroic as a commando (Sayeret Matkal). He was wounded numerous times in the process, including by friendly fire when he, with other commandoes, managed to disguise himself as an airplane mechanic, in order to board a Sabina plane in which terrorists were holding the passengers hostage, killing all the terrorists, and freeing all the hostages.
His intelligence served him well, not only as a soldier, but as prime minister of Israel and outstanding service as minister of finance, but in politics and foreign policy as well. In Israeli politics, he keeps getting re-elected when everyone, including me, thought he was going to lose. He has now served as prime minister of Israel longer than anyone has since the country was founded. It is no wonder that as a politician he has often been called “The Magician.”
In international relations he is a skilled diplomat and negotiator. For example, he, with his close ally, Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, managed to bring about the Abraham Accords – in my view the biggest step toward peace that Israel that has taken in the last 44 years. Aside from the conflicts with Hamas in Gaza, Israel has not been involved in a war on his watch.
With such a background, despite his many flaws, Bibi is certainly made of the stuff of which the principles of tragedies are made.
He also has a long way to fall. The problem for Bibi is that these same traits (mixed with a dose of overinflated ego), have created his tragic flaw, a characteristic he also shares which the principals of tragedies. Bibi’s tragic flaw is that his talents have led him to believe that he is irreplaceable as prime minister; he will do almost anything legal to win an election.
What Bibi does not understand is that the present war with Hamas in Gaza is very different from his previous challenges. He started off well. He realized that in time of war, Israel needs to have a unified cabinet, so he formed a special war cabinet. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud), an early appointment to the war cabinet, was no surprise. Another early appointment was Benny Gantz (Unity Party), even though, according to all the polls, Gantz was leading Bibi substantially as the person who would prevail in the next election and become the next Prime Minister. Bibi also invited Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition, who has been salivating to be elected to replace Bibi as prime minister for a decade, to be a member of the war cabinet, but Lapid refused.
At the same time that Bibi was putting together a unity war cabinet, the racist, ultra right-wing, ultra religious Itamar Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) and Bezalel Smotrich (National Religious Party) were demanding to be made members of the war cabinet, but Netanyahu refused their demands. Up to now, he has continued to refuse their demands.
In late May, Netanyahu’s tragic flaw, the one that makes him believe that he will always be the magician who can fall back on his political acumen to prevail, has appeared. Rather than maintaining the unity composition of the war cabinet, Netanyahu announced that he intends to run for re-election as Prime Minister and he intends to win.
Predictably, since then, the war cabinet has stopped being nonpartisan. Benny Gantz has pulled out of the war cabinet, blaming Netanyahu for his doing so. Now, instead of leading the fight against Hamas in Gaza, the members of the war cabinet are fighting among themselves. Gantz is demanding new elections.
Gantz made the political motivation behind his departure clear, saying, “We had no choice but to leave.” He added, “In the short term, not a lot is going to happen, but in the long term, this is our only way to change the government. At the strategic level, nothing has happened. Nothing is moving. There’s only politics.”
Ben Gvir’s racist Otzma Yehudit party has demanded once again that Ben Gvir be added to the war cabinet, in light of Gantz’ departure, whether King Bibi will reject Ben Gvir’s demand or once again rely on the racist, ultra religious, ultra right in order to be re-elected remains to be seen.
My own guess is that just as things did NOT end well for Hamlet, Macbeth, or Oedipus, things will NOT end well for Bibi. I just hope his tragic flaw does not bring Israel down with him.
