By Steve Kramer
KFAR SABA, Israel — Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu is Israel’s longest standing Prime Minister, having served from 1996–1999, 2009–2021, and 2022 to the present. In this, he has surpassed the redoubtable David Ben-Gurion, who served from 1948-1953 and 1955-1963. Some view Netanyahu as the consummate statesman while others see him as a power-mad autocrat. Objectively speaking, he is the first premier of Israel to be born after Israel’s independence, the only premier to have spent years in the US as a student, and the youngest man to have reached the pinnacle of Israeli political power. By the same token, Bibi is the only sitting Prime Minister to be charged with criminal offenses.
At this difficult moment, Netanyahu is facing charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate affairs. Despite a 7-front war that Israel is still enmeshed in, our Supreme Court has required Bibi to appear three times a week in court, six hours per session, 18 hours a week in all. This controversial trial began with investigations in 2016, which led to three indictments against him in 2019, with the trial commencing in 2020. Many believe that these charges are political more than anything else.
A common opinion among Israelis is that Netanyahu is not guilty of any of the three charges, one of which is for receiving too much champagne and cigars from an Israeli billionaire. Also common is the belief that he is guilty of one or all charges, a self-serving politician who puts himself above the nation, including during the current war. Just recently Israel’s (ceremonial-only) President Isaac Herzog opined that Bibi should accept ‘clemency’ (mercy, lenience), and end his trial by withdrawing from political life. However, the Prime Minister insists that the trial will end in a verdict of Not Guilty.
Anyone who knows Bibi’s history is pretty sure that Herzog’s suggestion will go nowhere. Bibi has proclaimed repeatedly that he is not guilty of any of the charges and that they are simply one of the many strategies to remove him from power. Another strategy with the same purpose may be provocations over much-needed reforms to Israel’s Supreme Court.
Note: those opposed to reforms to the Supreme Court don’t know, or don’t care, that the suggested reforms would make the Court closer to the American Supreme Court, whose members are chosen by the President and confirmed by the elected members of the Senate. The situation here is that the justices have a veto over candidates put forward by the government. How democratic is that?
Yes, Bibi is certainly a politician of the right, but I would classify him as more of a right-leaning centrist. Even in his position as the head of the right-wing Likud party, he is probably its most restrained and dovish member. While he has sounded the alarm for years against Iran’s push for nuclear weapons, he has still not authorized an attack to hobble Iran’s nuclear designs. In addition, he is careful of Israel’s relationship with its most powerful ally, the United States. You won’t see Bibi confronting an American president, with the exception of President Obama, who favored despotic, terrorist Iran over Israel. (The Obama administration freed up approximately $58 billion for Iran to utilize.)
President Biden has also clipped Israel’s wings during this war against Iran and its proxies. Ironically, slow-walking needed munitions for Israel has meant that the IDF has had to use less sophisticated methods against the terrorists, endangering more civilians, not fewer. During his term, Biden has released $57 billion for Iran, including $10 billion on 12/9/24.
Yisrael Medad, an American-born Israeli journalist and author recently wrote a powerful article in The Jerusalem Post praising Netanyahu during the latest, perpetual storm over his leadership.
“A central complaint of the anti-Netanyahu crowd is that he lacks ‘a strategy and a plan’ or that he ‘lacks a vision.’ Those claims have been proven false. Although the Israeli military began its campaign [after 10/7] slowly, it is now obvious that there was a plan from the beginning. The [IDF] generals simply needed someone to force them to put into practice a plan they had probably previously rejected, as it ran against their mindset that Hamas had been deterred and was an ineffective military force.
Netanyahu’s errors and the various court cases concerning his personal affairs have not outweighed his apparent brilliance in managing the affairs of the state. Even a delay in negotiations to release hostages has barely affected his political standing. (Hamas conditions for a deal are nearly impossible.) His appearances both on the international stage and within Israel’s political and security spheres have been successful. And now, with the developing situation in Syria, few would wish him to leave office.”
Israel, despite a 14-month war, has remained resilient, steadfast, and determined to beat back the threat from Iran and its proxies. In the last few months, it has dazzled the Western world with its brilliant, unexpected tactics and victories. The threat from Iran and the proxies which so transfixed Israel and other Western countries from even thinking that it could be defeated has been overturned. Iran has been weakened and a revolution against the mullahs is within the realm of possibility for the first time. Hezbollah, Iran’s greatest weapon against Israel, is on the ropes for the mid-future. Yemen is a distant threat that is much less potent than it was. Syria is in the midst of a revolution with Iran shunted aside. As for Gaza, it has been set back at least a generation, with the prospect of an IDF presence remaining there for the immediate future.
Will Benjamin Netanyahu be treated in the history books as an unparalleled Western leader who helped to remake the Middle East, or as a failed leader who was convicted of criminal offenses during his incumbency. It could go either way.
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Steve Kramer is a freelance writer based in Kfar Saba, Israel.