A Likud party election campaign banner depicting its leader, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo credit: REUTERS
Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig: Hard Questions for Bibi & His Conservative Supporters
Last week I asked ten tough questions that media interviewers should be asking “Progressives” regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general and vis-à-vis Gaza specifically. This time I turn the tables (or spotlight) on the other side of the ideological map: blunt questions addressed to Israel’s Right-wing camp leader, PM Netanyahu – who owes answers not only to the Opposition but also his own supporters.
1) You have always been considered “Mr. Security.” Can you think of any other strong military country that would allow a neighboring nation to continue firing missiles over their border, turning more than 100,000 citizens into “refugees” within their own country? Is playing “tit for tat” with Hezbollah a legitimate way to guarantee Israelis’ security, no matter how hard your “tat” is? If your answer is that the IDF can’t fight wars on two fronts, why then did you pull several divisions out of Gaza months ago, and not attempt to end the war there as soon as possible, so that Israel’s full military might could then be turned north towards Lebanon?
2) Several years ago, you successfully urged then-President Trump to scrap the Iran nuclear deal. That has proven to be disastrous: Iran now needs just a few weeks to build the bomb if and when it decides to do so. How can you still make a convincing case that you’re Israel’s “Mr. Security” when Israel is now facing an almost immediate existential threat?
3) At this point in time, why won’t you support the establishment of an official Israeli State Commission of Inquiry, instead of arguing that it can only be done when the war is over? Such a commission’s assignment would be to investigate everything that led up to the war – not the conduct of the war itself. Why should the Israeli public have to wait an unknown number of months (or more?) until the war’s end; after all, the person in charge of ending the war will be the central individual investigated (you) – and that’s a clear conflict of interest!
4) There are several reports about you insisting that all the highest-level official candidates for security positions (e.g., head of the Shabak, Mossad etc.) have to be first interviewed by your wife Sarah Netanyahu. Is this true? If so, what statutory authority could she possibly have for this? If not true, are you categorically willing to say outright that it’s a lie i.e., Sarah does not interview such candidates?
5) When your brother Yoni Netanyahu z”l died in the daring 1976 Entebbe campaign to free Israeli hostages, IDF officers came to the shiva to pay their respects. Your mother told them that she blamed PM Rabin for his death because if he had agreed to a hostage swap deal, Yoni would still be alive. Doesn’t that mean anything to you about the importance of such a deal today with Hamas?
6) You are known for your keen understanding of political image and public relations. Israel’s national budget today has a huge deficit due to the ongoing war – and yet, despite this you have: an asked for the State to pay for renovations of the swimming pool in your Caesarea private home; b- pay approximately one million shekels for security for your son Yair, who moved to Florida – when the children of prime ministers are not supposed to have any security detail at all; c- insisted that President Isaac Herzog fly on the state jet (“Wing of Zion”) when he wants to save money by flying on El Al. The bottom-line question: is this the way to show Israel’s citizenry the need for belt-tightening? Are you aware how all these demands are viewed by the general public?
7) Why are you so willing to be interviewed by the foreign press (recently, even by TIME Magazine), but not by your own country’s media – except for Channel 14, your cheerleading station? True, you very infrequently appear at a press conference, but reporters aren’t given much time to ask their questions – and certainly cannot follow up when you avoid answering them. Don’t the people of Israel deserve to hear your answers to tough questions asked by journalists who are more familiar with the details of the country’s situation?
8) And now for the final, biggest question of all: Back in 2008, as the Leader of the Opposition, you blasted then PM Olmert for the latter’s failures in the Second Lebanese War, arguing unequivocally: “Prime Minister, you were supposed to check the army’s preparedness, its operations, and defense of the civilian home front. Denial of responsibility like this I haven’t seen in all my days. When the failure is so broad, what’s demanded is changing the prime minister who failed.” So the question is clear: why aren’t you resigning from office? After all, Oct. 7 was a far greater failure (disaster is a better word) than the Second Lebanese War. As an avowed “nationalist” (mamlakhti), shouldn’t your first loyalty be to the country and not to the party or your personal future?
