Netanyahu’s Bar Kokhba Syndrome

The High Holidays approach.  Rosh Hahshanah (the New Year) starts Monday night through the Ten Days of Awe to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).

During this time, it is traditional to reflect on the past year as we seek to be inscribed in the Book of Life.  The Talmud teaches that Yom Kippur atones for sins against God but not for sins against people – for that, forgiveness must be sought from those affected.

I wonder what will go through Benjamin Netanyahu’s mind during this period.

Israel recently commenced a mindless and destructive attack on Gaza City, against the advice of the army and the Mossad.  Ostensibly to root out every last member of Hamas – instead it is an action designed to perpetuate the war – and an action which will result in the death of the remaining living Israeli hostages, thousands of Palestinian lives and the death of hundreds of Israelis.

No other Israel political leader nor future Prime Ministerial candidate would have continued the war.  Not front runner Naftali Bennett, not former Chief of Staff Gabi Eizenkot, not former deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan, and not Yair Lapid.

Netanyahu has also singularly betrayed Israel’s history by elevating ancient Sparta as his new paradigm and eschewing ancient Athens.  Netanyahu now claims that Israel must become a self-reliant economy with “autarkic characteristics” and a kind of “super-Sparta.”  That concept is not just offensive it is delusional.

To most observers in Israel and without, Netanyahu perpetuates the war for personal reasons – to stay in power and to stay out of jail.  The war has long since passed being in response to the Hamas invasion and massacres of October 7, 2023.

Though Netanyahu has chosen Sparta as Israel’s new exemplar,  I suggest a more apt comparison for Netanyahu would be Simon Bar Kokhba

In 1983, Yehoshefat Harkabi, former Chief of Israeli Military Intelligence, published book called The Bar Kokhba Syndrome: Risk and Realism in International Politics.

Succinctly put, Bar-Kokhba led an uprising against the Romans in province of Judea from 132–135 AD.  The revolt had the support of Rabbi Akiba, the leading sage of the day, and there is an allusion that the rabbi’s sitting around the table at the Passover seder were plotting the rebellion.  The revolt succeeded in briefly re-establishing a Jewish state in Judea.

The Romans, however, eventually crushed the revolt and depopulated Judea by mass killings, enslavements and the exile of almost all the Jewish population.

Over the years, for many on the Israeli right and far-right Bar Kokhba became a cult hero.  A symbol of standing up to Jewish oppressors.  But as Harkabi demonstrates, the rebellion led to Jewish statelessness for over 1800 years until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.  The issue is “risk and realism”.

I have written elsewhere that Netanyahu frequently violates Clausewitz’ second principle of warfare which is “not to take the first step without considering the last” and violates another basic principle that  “the object of war is to win the last battle”.   Netanyahu does not seek victory he just seeks battle.

I tremble, because like Bar Kokhba, I fear Netanyahu is presiding over the demise over the State of Israel as we knew it. The existential crisis facing Israel is not Hamas, is it Netanyahu.

The Israeli economy is in shambles –  the cost of the war; the refusal of most of the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community to work or perform any form of national service and yet demand to be heavily subsidized;  and most importantly, the incredible burden on Israeli reservists – many of whom have served over 400 days since October 7, 2023 – wreaking havoc on businesses, professional lives and families.

Emigration from Israel exceeds immigration (even as antisemitism engulfs Europe) – that trend will only grow.  “Start -up nation” is in danger of becoming “closed-down country”.

In a few years, there will be no tax base as high-tech sector flees , and those with options will leave rather that deal with mounting reserve duty and high taxation – and when the ultra-Orthodox will neither work nor serve.  Only the messianic ultra-nationalists and the ultra-Orthodox will remain.

In April 1977, George Ball wrote in Foreign Affairs:  “How to Save Israel in Spite of  a Herself”.   Fortunately, six months later Egyptian President Anwar Sadat came to Jerusalem and changed the region and the conflict.

During these Days of Awe, Jews need to contemplate on what we can do to save Israel from Netanyahu.   It will not be easy.