Netanyahu's Next Act
He's not going anywhere, and he's already set in motion his plan to return to power.
First off, welcome to all our new subscribers! This newsletter wouldn’t exist without you, and it’s great to have so many more of you here.
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(Also, while I like to poke the Times, it does great work like this retrospective on Netanyahu’s career by outgoing Jerusalem bureau chief David Halbfinger.)
As some of you know, I have a general “no podcast” rule, simply because I don’t have enough time in the day to join all those who invite me, and I can’t bring myself to pick and choose among them. But on occasion, I break this rule to join the great Tommy Vietor on Pod Save the World and discuss whatever crazy things just happened in Israeli politics. Last week, we tackled everything from the new Israeli government and its leaders, to Netanyahu’s plan to capsize them, to how to pronounce my name. You can hear our conversation here, starting at 46:42. Be warned, though: if you’re one of those people who listens to podcasts on double speed, you might want to … not do that here.
Netanyahu’s Next Act
While Israel’s longest-serving prime minister may have been ousted earlier this month, he isn’t going anywhere, and has already set in motion the machinery for his return to power. Today in Tablet, I have an in-depth piece about Netanyahu’s grand plan to delegitimize and sabotage Israel’s new government, both at home and overseas:
The fact that Netanyahu ultimately gave way to his opponents, however begrudgingly, puzzled those who expected him to evoke his own January 6 moment. But this misunderstands Israel’s longest-serving leader entirely. Netanyahu doesn’t want to destroy the country. He intends to rule it.
…Unlike Trump, an incompetent and capricious con man, Netanyahu—like many other conservative nationalists—has a plan and a vision for his country’s success. He sees his current exile not as his end, but as a temporary setback that he will soon overcome. There’s no need to bring down the system, in other words, when you intend to run it again. Netanyahu remains Israel’s opposition leader, waiting in the wings to resume office should the current government fall.
To that end, Netanyahu has already set in motion the machinery for his return. His two-pronged effort to sabotage the new Israeli government at home and abroad began in the Knesset on the same day it was sworn in.
Read the whole thing to learn how Netanyahu has already begun undermining the new Israeli government’s standing with both the Biden administration and the Republican party—and why anyone who is counting Bibi out is sorely underestimating him.
Words of Note
Historian of Reconstruction Eric Foner: “The history of America is not the history of freedom and it’s not the history of slavery. It’s the history of the battle over those things.”
Israeli foreign minister and alternate prime minister Yair Lapid, in the inaugural speech he didn’t get to deliver: “The real divide in Israeli society isn’t between left and right. The real divide is between moderates and extremists. Those who want to build and those who want to destroy. We will not let the extremists destroy the State of Israel. We will not let hate control us. Violent racists do not become patriots just because they wrap themselves in a flag. They will not define for us what it means to love Israel.”
PS: I deserve better trolls
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