A story told by an old friend is apocryphal. Three decades ago, a young, up-and-coming Israeli politician called a journalist to cancel lunch. “Turn on TV!” The rest is certain.
It was 1993 and Benjamin Netanyahu was a desperate figure despite his rise to the top of Likud’s leader and national opposition leader. On television, Netanyahu was revealing an extramarital affair. This was not his first. As the world would know him, “Bibi” accused “someone very powerful” from Likud of being behind the subterfuge. Netanyahu insisted, and was right to be, that this was a personal matter. Netanyahu’s rivals, however, claimed they had video and weren’t the kind of people who would be tenderhearted. Netanyahu was adamant about the “Mafia-like” tactics.
Bibi was humiliated and later suffered other humiliations, including a defrocking 2021.
Despite all the humiliation, there were still remarkable political achievements. In ’93, Netanyahu became the leader of the opposition, was then prime minister 1996-1999, was finance minister and then a second, spanning an entire era, was elected to power in 2009 through last year. Since 1993, Netanyahu has been the chairman of the conservative Likud (now called the de factoparty for governance of Israel following the death of Israel’s founding socialist generations).
Netanyahu is a true survivor’s genius: Few figures supported George W. Bush’s Iraq War and were close to Mitt Romney’s inner circle, then best friends with Donald Trump. Now, plausibly set to outlast them all, a Barnumian feat. Trump claims he will be running for president next week, so perhaps it is time to rethink.
He’ll need to wait for his turn to take a step toward the spotlight. It would seem that Netanyahu has pulled it off as of last week.
It’s an Israeli return back to form with a potential 65-seat majority at the Knesset, Israel’s legislative body. It is also a sign of a crimson fall in the United States. It’s true that Israel is now a center-right nation, as baby boomers of the 2000s used to say. This is contrary to the founding socialist generation and has some implications for the relationship between American Jews who are often upset by the country’s nerve. The original set was not nervy, they fought and died to protect the country. The new elite of Israel’s power seem to be proud and committed to the nation’s existence and its reason for being ruled. This would be a refreshing contrast to the current Western high command where the anti-national right has been the default power for at most 15 years.
Even the Israel-Palestine wars are old hat, with the former mired in terminal losersdom, even their historic patron abandoning. The situation will only get worse and more pointless when Mahmoud Abdulbas, the lo-fi, but in many ways indispensable successor of Yasser Arafat, finally walks off. The long-heralded 3rd Intifada is the most likely, yet also the least interesting, uprisings. The scale of Israeli victory and its security for its people is something that long-time enemies find a bit shocking. Submission was written by Michel Houellebecq, the elegant and sexy Michel Houellebecq.When his Jewish love flees East, his neoautobiographical protagonist is left behind:
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The remaining five Bush Republicans and American liberals have Ukraine to identify (in place of, you’ll know, enjoying one’s own country). It seemed that the British played a similar role to the American right for quite some time, and even recently. Boris Johnson is the latest manifestation of Margaret Thatcher. Liz Truss was my first choice. After James Baker lost war (then quasi denied its excesses), Israel became America’s special relation. For Republicans and their friends, at least.
Johnson cannot return properly, after all. Contra Bibi and Trump, he was elected to the presidency for less than one year. This is an avatar of national fantasies. Even Netanyahu’s infidelities are comical. He’s been married to that third wife for 30 years. Johnson married a millennial while in office. Loyalty comes at a cost. Johnson was unable to find a cabinet to support his government in the end. Netanyahu showed that half of the country was willing and able to rally around him, even though Netanyahu is fighting with the establishment: the courts and maybe even the Mossad cadres.
Johnson is not the one. According to Michael Heseltine, a Conservative bigwig, Johnson is “a man who waits for the crowd to move, then sprints in front of him and says ‘follow us’.” This has, as the children say, consequences. Johnson’s Britain was probably held more tightly than the United States. Then, it had a more hypocritical and tolerant elite. Johnson seems to be more concerned about Ukraine than Ulster. This could lead to the spread of war or even the end of the species. Contrary to this, the tact of Netanyahu and Israel throughout the war has been an oddly Metternichian tour-de-force. The Netanyahu era continues into another encore. Netanyahu is now democracy’s most bankable superstar.
