Israeli former prime minister Ehud Barak shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday of an Israeli professor stating that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is like Adolf Hitler and is mentally unfit to run a country.
The post in question was shared by former Israeli National Security Council deputy head Eran Etzion and featured Prof. Ichak Adizes, a Yugoslavia-born Israeli professor who was a tenured professor at UCLA, Stanford, Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Columbia University. He has also authored several books on leadership, such as The Ideal Executive, Leading the Leaders, and How to Manage in Times of Crisis.
פרופ' יצחק אדיג'ס הוא פיגורה בינלאומית שייעץ לראשי מדינות ומנכ"לי תאגידי ענק. כתב ספרים רבים ונחשבים על דמות המנהיג והמנהל.הניתוח שלו- נתניהו, כמו מילוסביץ', כמו טראמפ, וכן גם כמו היטלר בימיו האחרונים מאבד קשר עם המציאות, מאבד שליטה, "מתאבד" ולוקח את כל המדינה יחד איתו. צפו pic.twitter.com/41MrxlOnob
— Eran Etzion ערן עציון (@eranetzion) August 15, 2023
In the video, Adizes compared Netanyahu to other infamous world leaders, such as Donald Trump, Serbian Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milošević, and Hitler – specifically in the final days of his reign.
This similarity, he argued, is due to how both leaders seemingly lost touch with reality and lost control, adding that like Hitler, Netanyahu will eventually commit suicide, taking the whole country down with him.
"Must watch!" Barak said in his post, writing that "a leading international leadership consultant has issued his shocking opinion!"
The Likud Party fired back later in the day on social media.
"Ehud 'Hot Neck' Barak, partner of the pedophile [Jeffrey] Epstein, has finally gone off the rails," the party wrote. "After saying that he will lead anti-government protests until there are 'bodies floating in the lake' and he's called back to hold the helm of power, Barak continues to incite the assassination of a sitting prime minister in Israel and compares him to Hitler.
"After dozens of complaints against instigators like him, where are the law enforcement agencies summoning him for investigation?"
Ehud Barak's statements against Netanyahu and the government
Barak has been one of the most vocal figures in the ongoing protests against the Netanyahu-led government's judicial reform.
This has included launching attacks against Netanyahu, labeling him as a fascist and a dictator. On one occasion, he even referred to Israeli President Isaac Herzog as Neville Chamberlain, the UK prime minister who resigned after negotiating with Hitler just before the start of World War II.
In June, Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kreuzer filed a complaint with the police against Barak, accusing him of sedition and incitement.
"I have now filed a complaint with the Lev Habira police station in Jerusalem against the failed former prime minister Ehud Barak following the words of incitement, defamation and calls to riot, things which were exposed by Channel 14 reporter Motti Kastel," he wrote at the time. "I hope the police will call him in for questioning and deal with these harsh things, harshly."