In Netanyahu’s Israel, the Divisiveness Is Now All About Him
- 6 years ago
In Netanyahu’s Israel, the Divisiveness Is Now All About Him
15, 2018
JERUSALEM — In a trio of new polls, Israelis have declared what they think of the bribery case against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
and the answer is roughly the same as what they think of Mr. Netanyahu himself: About half think he should step aside.
Yet Mr. Netanyahu’s Israel also lacks the sense of a unifying national mission
that characterized the country’s first 50 years, when it was building itself up from the sand, absorbing waves of diaspora immigrants and defending itself in a series of existential wars, days when its prime ministers wore frumpy clothes and lived modestly, as if they wouldn’t know a payoff if it landed in their palms.
For many Israelis, the ugliness hit a new low last year when, at an emotional Knesset committee hearing on the 2014 Gaza war, two members of Mr. Netanyahu’s
Likud Party got into a shouting match with two bereaved parents, calling one of them a "liar." Mr. Netanyahu, who attended the hearing, sat silently.
The bet paid off eventually but it also accelerated the trend of support for Israel breaking
down along American partisan lines — a dangerous shift for American Jews and Israel alike.
Shlomo Avineri said that Imagine if, in the next few weeks, there is a justified case for Israel to go to war,
Mr. Netanyahu’s Israel has seen less partisan moments, like the social protests of 2011
that cut across party lines and were a fleeting reminder of what it could mean for the country to come together in peacetime.
If we had to go to war, the decision would be contaminated for a lot of people." Mr. Netanyahu has dismissed the police recommendations to charge him as "slanted"
and "full of holes, like Swiss cheese." The attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, praised the police on Thursday, in his first public remarks on the recommendations.
15, 2018
JERUSALEM — In a trio of new polls, Israelis have declared what they think of the bribery case against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
and the answer is roughly the same as what they think of Mr. Netanyahu himself: About half think he should step aside.
Yet Mr. Netanyahu’s Israel also lacks the sense of a unifying national mission
that characterized the country’s first 50 years, when it was building itself up from the sand, absorbing waves of diaspora immigrants and defending itself in a series of existential wars, days when its prime ministers wore frumpy clothes and lived modestly, as if they wouldn’t know a payoff if it landed in their palms.
For many Israelis, the ugliness hit a new low last year when, at an emotional Knesset committee hearing on the 2014 Gaza war, two members of Mr. Netanyahu’s
Likud Party got into a shouting match with two bereaved parents, calling one of them a "liar." Mr. Netanyahu, who attended the hearing, sat silently.
The bet paid off eventually but it also accelerated the trend of support for Israel breaking
down along American partisan lines — a dangerous shift for American Jews and Israel alike.
Shlomo Avineri said that Imagine if, in the next few weeks, there is a justified case for Israel to go to war,
Mr. Netanyahu’s Israel has seen less partisan moments, like the social protests of 2011
that cut across party lines and were a fleeting reminder of what it could mean for the country to come together in peacetime.
If we had to go to war, the decision would be contaminated for a lot of people." Mr. Netanyahu has dismissed the police recommendations to charge him as "slanted"
and "full of holes, like Swiss cheese." The attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, praised the police on Thursday, in his first public remarks on the recommendations.