Looking Past Netanyahu’s US Visit  

Earlier today Prime Minister Netanyahu left for Washington with a group of relatives of those still being held in Gaza, as well as Noa Argamani, who was rescued by the IDF in a daring operation that returned two other hostages to Israel at the same time.  He is scheduled to address a joint session of congress on Wednesday.

On the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport, he said: “I will seek to anchor the bipartisan support that is so important for Israel. And I will tell my friends on both sides of the aisle that regardless of who the American people choose as their next president, Israel remains America’s indispensable and strong ally in the Middle East.”  Does he need to go to Washington for this purpose?  Don’t they already know that?

In an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post (https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-803922) on May 28^th, I argued that I thought it was a mistake for him to go to Washington and I have not changed my mind. The US right now is in an incredibly polarized place, whose situation is made even more tenuous by the decision of President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race just 100 days before the election. (Personally, I believe he did the right thing both for him and the country and applaud him for it.) The Prime Minister will speak to a joint session where any number of seats will be vacant because a significant number of legislators will use their “protest power” to show their displeasure with Israel over how we are handling the war.  Do we need that?

And, of course, there will no doubt be hundreds if not thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators in the streets in Washington voicing their displeasure with Israel and its Prime Minister.   We don’t need that either.

But the good news is that surveys show that in spite of all of this, 85% of the US public is behind Israel in its fight with Hamas and continues its vocal support for our efforts here.  Given that, the Prime Minister does not need to tell the US Congress “…that regardless of who the American people choose as their next president, Israel remains America’s indispensable and strong ally in the Middle East.”  They already know that and have shown their incredible support of our efforts here since October 7^th for which we need to be very grateful.

It would have been better for him to have stayed home and helped us get to a deal to release the remaining hostages and not butt into the domestic affairs of the US at a time of such upheaval there.

While the Prime Minister was on the tarmac talking about his upcoming trip, a Canadian citizen who had entered Israel this week legally, rented a car, bought a knife, and was on his way to Kibbutz Netiv Ha’asara near the border with Gaza to kill Jews.  Fortunately, as he exited the vehicle with the knife in his hand announcing his intention to punish Jews for what we are doing in Gaza, the Rapid Response Team of the kibbutz saw this and opened fire, killing the perpetrator before he could carry out his rampage.  This opened  a new chapter in terrorism, with someone traveling to Israel from the west for the specific purpose of killing Jews.

Of course, one day the insanity that has enveloped Israel since the attack on October 7^th will end and we will then need to face the future and decide what kind of a country we want so that we will never again face the type of challenge that is upon us at the moment.

To their credit, The Times of Israel put forth a podcast late last week with economist, and one of our resident geniuses, Dr. Eugene Kandel, who painted a vision of a new Israel and what we need to do to get us there successfully.  Eugene is a personal favorite of mine ever since I met him over 20 years ago and brings a fresh approach to dealing with the challenges that will face us once this war is over.  You can view the podcast here……

https://tinyurl.com/25a6tndd

I can guarantee you that it will be time well spent.