Law, Power, and Justice

Monday 13 November 2023

The US press covers very little of the criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu since the October 6 Hamas attack.  But Gershom Gorenberg, an Israeli journalist and historian, wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times (10/18/23) which reflects what many Israelis are thinking, i.e., that Netanyahu deserves a lot of the blame for events.

The real question, Gorenberg writes, for Israelis is “Who allowed this to happen?”

Israeli’s must, he argues, “demand a national accounting.”  While the head of Shin Bet security service and the commander of military intelligence have taken public responsibility for the Hamas invasion, Netanyahu has “glaringly failed to do so.”

And it’s not as if Netanyahu hasn’t been given the opportunity.  He has been asked repeatedly.  And, in a late night social media message (which has since been deleted) he put blame on the military and defense.

But, as Gorenberg points out, there is no where else for the buck to stop.  Netanyahu has been prime minister for 13 of the past 14 years.  The present government is Netanyahu’s most extreme government, “because only extreme parties were willing to join a coalition with a prime minister on trial on corruption charges. His own Likud has become a party of lackeys; experienced politicians critical of him abandoned it.”

        “The government’s agenda — what appears to be virtually its only concern — has been funneling money to ultra-Orthodox schools, supporting West Bank settlement and, most of all, pushing through radical changes to the judicial system that would protect Mr. Netanyahu and the right’s hold on power. The attention of the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right politician known for his openly racist views, is divided between two jobs: While he occupies one of the most demanding roles in government, he also oversees settlement in the Defense Ministry.

The security cabinet, responsible for directing the military, has met only sporadically. In July the military chief of staff, Gen. Herzi Halevi, was reportedly unable to get a meeting with Mr. Netanyahu. Instead the general wrote the prime minister a letter, with a warning of danger to the army’s internal cohesion — apparently owing to the government’s judicial program. But whether he was distracted by his trial and immense public opposition to his plans or was overconfident in Israel’s advantage over its enemies, Mr. Netanyahu clearly wasn’t paying close attention to security this year.”

Gorenberg cites “hubris and complacency and, most of all, the delusions” of Netanyahu and his government.