Netanyahu the fighter: a story of ingratitude, because the facts speak for him
He defended Israel, contributed more than any other to restoring peace, made his country one of the capitals of world technology
As in the last four Israeli elections, the Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, won, but not enough to secure a government majority. This is due to the pure proportional system, which facilitates the fragmentation of politics in the Jewish state. The extremely delicate balance of Israeli society, on the other hand, advises against any majority system: a secular majority could not govern peacefully over religious and Orthodox minorities, a Jewish majority risks civil war if it rules over the Arab minority without guaranteeing them representation. The proportional, therefore, is the only system that Israel can afford to continue to exist as a cohesive state. But the price to pay, as we have seen in the last two years, is ungovernability.
In Israel and the Western world, many are hoping this is the end of the premier who has ruled the longest in the country's history. For the first time, a head of government is on trial, accused of corruption. In the squares, the left demonstrates asking for his resignation. In the White House there is a president, Joe Biden, who waited a month before calling him, making him clearly understand that he does not want him as an interlocutor. Netanyahu, since forming his first executive of this century in 2009, has been accused by the American left and the European left of boycotting the peace process in the Middle East and wanting war with Iran. In the last century, he ruled from 1996 to 1999 and was accused even then of having wrecked the Oslo accords (1993). In Obama's time, the hostility was such that the US president made him wait for long anterooms and reserved for him entrances from the back door of the White House.
In the 2015 elections, Netanyahu was already given up on international observers. But to his great surprise (unpleasant for Obama and the EU) he won by beating the favorite Isaac Herzog. With President Trump, Netanyahu has found a solid ally and friend in Washington. For this reason it has been included among the favorite targets of universal hatred against “sovereign” leaders. After the victory of 2015, the Israeli opposition went from war to guerrilla, to a series of government crises, due to the breakdown of fragile majorities, which led to the incredible record of four elections in two years, from 2019 to today. And also from 2019, Netanyahu has also ended up in the crosshairs of the judiciary.
But does he deserve all this hatred, at home and abroad? This is a story of ingratitude.
Four elections in two years would crush anyone. Not Netanyahu, who has been a fighter since his early years of maturity. Joining the special forces in the aftermath of the Six Day War (1967), the future premier fought in the War of Attrition against Egypt and then in the Yom Kippur War (1973), conducting daring missions in Syrian territory. His brother, Yonathan, was killed on July 4, 1976, in the famous Entebbe raid, in which the Israeli commandos he led went as far as Uganda to free the hostages of Air France Flight 139 kidnapped by Palestinian and German terrorists. In that same 1976, Netanyahu was taking his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and became an economic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group . Economy and war have always been the two dimensions of the premier, who summed up his political agenda in a single sentence: "I want to protect Israel and free its economy".
In terms of security, despite his reputation as a warmonger, Netanyahu must be remembered as the prime minister of peace. It is clearly not peace as Israeli Labor or American Democrats understand it. The conservative premier does not intend to draw a line now, but to consolidate the status quo. Only once peace has been reached, on the ground, only after the attitude of the Arab counterpart has changed, will it be possible to talk about borders. Arriving in government in the aftermath of the 2009 Gaza war, he fought two small conflicts against the Hamas-controlled city, in 2012 (Operation Cloud Column) and 2014 (Operation Protective Edge).
Since 2011 it has also conducted a series of small air strikes against Hezbollah, in Lebanon and Syria, to prevent them from carrying heavy weapons and especially chemical weapons in their Lebanese arsenals. With the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, in fact, the south of Syria and Lebanon, close to Galilee and the Golan, has become a potentially explosive area. Netanyahu's skill, more diplomatic than military, consisted precisely in being able to keep the peace despite being close to a very bloody war, both by using local militias to guard the northern border, and by negotiating with Moscow (Assad's main ally, therefore indirectly also of Hezbollah) to curb potential enemies.
The Abrahamic Accords are signed by Netanyahu. And they are not a trivial matter. In all its history, Israel had only signed two peace treaties with Arab neighbors: one with Egypt in 1979 and the other with Jordan in 1994. In just one year, thanks also to the mediation of the Trump administration, Netanyahu has signed four agreements to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Sudan (historical seat of the Arab League) and Morocco were also added by return of post. It could be the prelude to a historic peace with Saudi Arabia. As long as the Biden administration (blatantly hostile to both Israel and Saudi Arabia) doesn't ruin everything. Netanyahu has always identified Iran as the only real existential threat to Israel, so he was more willing to dialogue with the Sunni Islamic world. Above all, this is the intuition that underlies the peace agreements. And this is why we hear less and less of Palestinian terrorism, which was mainly financed by wealthy Sunni countries. Iran has not shown, so far, that it has the means and money to replace it.
But the most important aspect of the Netanyahu governments is the economic one. It will be remembered, much to the left's anger, as the Thatcher equivalent of the Middle East. A staunch supporter of free market ideas, he lowered taxes, cut public spending and privatized the privatizable, including commercial ports. His economic view is explained in the metaphor of the fat man (the state) sitting on the back of the thin man (the private sector). His solution was to make the fat man lose weight to allow the thin man to walk. And, judging by the results, he started running. In 2010, the first year of his government, the GDP had grown by almost 6 percent, in the following years, with two exceptions (in 2012 and 2016), the growth has never been less than 3 percent. By taxing the companies of technological innovation, it has allowed the birth of a second Silicon Valley: renamed “Silicon Wadi” , on the Mediterranean coast, from Tel Aviv to Haifa. If we think of medical innovation, in nanotechnologies, cyber technologies, robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as in the more traditional sectors of defense and agriculture, we often realize that they are all innovations coming from Israel in the last ten years. Even today, in the midst of the pandemic, the most promising treatments are always being tested in the Jewish state.
Speaking of Covid-19 , Netanyahu leads the world ranking in terms of vaccination plan efficiency. We now get the data on the functionality of vaccines from Israel, the only country that is rapidly reaching herd immunity. Before the vaccine was invented, even at the time of the first wave, on the other hand, Israel was at the forefront of epidemic tracking systems, along with South Korea.
With all this we do not intend at all to write a Netanyahu crocodile, who is alive, well, has won the elections and (judiciary and other parties permitting) may even return to govern again. But simply, if you hear about it as a monster that Israel must get rid of as soon as possible, think twice before nodding.
The post Netanyahu the fighter: a story of ingratitude, because the facts speak for him appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/netanyahu-il-combattente-una-storia-di-ingratitudine-perche-i-fatti-parlano-per-lui/ on Thu, 25 Mar 2021 04:56:00 +0000.