Time to quit: Netanyahu, Bar, and all of Israel’s leaders failed and must step down – opinion
By Gil Troy, published in The Jerusalem Post.
After 500-plus days of using Israel’s national emergency to defer elections, squelch national inquiries, and keep power despite failing catastrophically on October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is allowing us to return to normal.
Apparently, we’ve subdued our enemies enough for him to assail the national security establishment and the rule of law, demoralize reservists by refusing to address them honestly, and tolerate ultra-Orthodox draft evasion to keep his coalition staggering ahead. That justifies everyone demanding elections – now. In the spirit of our desperately needed national renewal, the prime minister should quit – along with all the other failed opposition leaders who were blinded by the conceptzia [or confirmation bias]: Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, and Yair Golan.
It’s hard to believe that Netanyahu remains in power. Hasn’t he gotten the memo? Israelis are fed up with him, his divisiveness, his contempt for democracy; with his refusal to take responsibility for October 7 and other disasters, with his hostility to any critics. Nearly three-quarters of Israelis want him resigning immediately or after the war.
Yet he and his devotees keep earning gold medals in authoritarianism, bullying, and cowardice – distracting Israelis from genuine enemies outside by treating fellow citizens as traitors within.
Alas, looking Left, they just keep demonstrating. Haven’t they heard? Most Israelis are fed up with the blocked traffic and impotent fury.
The hostage protesters sabotaged their own cause by weakening Israel’s bargaining position, harassing Israeli leaders at home rather than protesting Qatari embassies worldwide. Now, a few fanatics foolishly keep infuriating most Israelis, feeding Bibistas’ paranoid fantasies of a condescending Ashkenazi elite earning their gold medals in sore-loserdom. More shockingly: Who’s the protesters’ martyr this week? The Shin Bet head who, like Bibi, should resign for his October 7 failures.
We must keep pressuring Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iran. We should correct the Israeli and foreign reporters claiming that Netanyahu only continues attacking Gaza for “domestic considerations.” You have to dig deep in most articles blasting Israel’s renewed bombings to find the word “hostages.” Although Israel must protect its borders and keep crushing Hamas, the dynamics would change immediately if all the Gazan terrorists holding them released every hostage.
It is time for others to lead the country
WITH AT least two dozen Israelis still enduring unspeakable abuse in Hamas tunnels and “innocent” Gazans’ homes, Defense Minister Israel Katz finally warned that the more Hamas persists, “the more territory it will lose to Israel.”
This should have been clear long before October 7. When Hamas bombarded Israel after the 2005 Gaza disengagement, I proposed in these pages that Israel seize 10 meters of borderlands for each barrage. Territorial loss is the traditional language of war: Palestinians understand that language, too.
Facing these threats, it’s unconscionable that our (mis)leaders – especially Bibi – divide the country, depress our soldiers, and divert attention from Israel’s existential fight for survival – domestically and internationally. Netanyahu should stop his manipulative attempts to rally his fanatic but dwindling band of supporters.
In order to shame him and to model the self-sacrificing leadership Israel deserves, and to reject their old stale protest playbook, every opposition leader should resign.