Netanyahu and Israel’s Inflection Point

Almost a year has passed since the great tragedy of October 7th. Yet the man most responsible for the security failures of that day still holds a firm grip on power. 

In fact, his always-firm grip seems firmer than ever. Frankly, that is largely thanks to the work of the IDF. Their pager attack on Hezbollah, an operation that took years of preparation, has been called “a masterstroke.” Others called it “the Pearl Harbor or 9/11 of Hezbollah.” Either way, many within Israel proclaimed that deterrence—and Israel’s confidence in the IDF—had been dramatically restored. 

Then there was the successful strike on Hezbollah chieftain Nasrallah in Dahiyeh. Nasrallah is no more, and no one will miss him. The blood on his hands stretched from the embassies of America to the most gruesome battlefields of Syria. Just ask the rebel-held areas of Syria what they think of the Nasrallah killing. 

Finally, Israel has fended off yet another ineffective rocket attack from Iran, albeit with significant help from America, Britain, Jordan, and others. More to the point, Iran still has not found its way around what I once called the Iranian Dilemma. Right now, the Ayatollah’s regime sits paralyzed somewhere between war and peace. It desperately wants to restore its “deterrence,” and yet it fears that doing so will cause its own spider web to unravel. Meanwhile, the coalition against Iranian imperialism has held fast, even while under enormous pressure. 

Iran and its imperialist stooges are on the run, as I have said before. But I would be careful before I give Netanyahu any share of the credit. First of all, he is not the IDF. If anything, the Netanyahu coalition has undermined the work of the Defense Forces time and time again. Most notably, it has encouraged and incited right-wing mobs to overrun military bases simply because the IDF tried to enforce the wartime code of conduct regarding the treatment of Palestinian detainees. For this “crime,” the Israeli far-right unleashed a riot “bordering on [full-blown] anarchy.” If anything, the IDF did what it did despite the chaos of the current Netanyahu era. They put their heads down and did the work while Netanyahu’s governing partners tried to revive the same unpopular judicial reforms that brought us to this point in the first place. 

Netanyahu has failed his country on almost every level imaginable. He failed Israel on October 7th, and he has failed Israel after October 7th, even now. He has failed to take responsibility for his role in allowing what happened on that day to happen. He has failed to give his people any sense that he will be held accountable for his failures.

He has decided to cling to political power instead of giving it up for the good of creating a unified government that his people could trust. He has allowed Smotrich and Ben-Gvir to run wild, whether it by marching on the Temple Mount or by letting them indulge in their insane fantasies of annexing the West Bank. 

Most importantly, Netanyahu has failed the hostages. How do I know? Because of the same Hezbollah pager attack Netanyahu is trying to use to save his political career. For months, the IDF had this plan in the works. For months, the IDF was ready to launch this attack. If it hadn’t been for fears of being exposed, Israel may have waited even longer before detonating the explosives.

In other words, what was Netanyahu waiting for? If—merely for the sake of argument—Netanyahu truly believed military pressure on Nasrallah and Hezbollah could bring Sinwar to the table, why wasn’t this attack launched earlier? Why didn’t he try to use it as leverage in the hostage negotiations? 

Why did Netanyahu instead choose to waste time bickering over the Philadelphi Corridor, to the endless frustration of the American negotiators and cabinet officials like Yoav Gallant? If Netanyahu’s concern was getting a deal, and not buying time to save his own political future, why didn’t he consider using this type of psychological warfare to finally bring the hostages home after 10 long months? 

No, don’t tell me “the Biden Administration” stopped him from doing it. I wasn’t born yesterday. Netanyahu didn’t worry about the Biden Administration when he assassinated Haniyeh, did he? Or when he assassinated Nasrallah? Or when he launched the actual pager attack? Netanyahu has never worried about “containing” this conflict. He has never tried to prevent a wider regional war. If anything, he has timed the wider regional war to benefit two men: himself and Donald Trump. No wonder Trump allegedly urged Netanyahu to avoid a ceasefire deal in an August 14th call. 

If those allegations are true, Netanayahu has engaged in treachery that would make 1968 Richard Nixon blush. It would be election interference of the highest order, with no less than the lives of his fellow Israeli citizens hanging in the balance.

What does Netanyahu say to all this? That is the question every single solitary Israeli citizen should be asking themselves right now. Do the people of Israel want to entrust this man with the future of their nation? With the crises of a lifetime? With a 2-front or 3-front war and counting? 

Israel may want to set its own house in order before blowing up the neighborhood. Or else it might find itself under the leadership of a man who will lead her into a collective suicide mission.