It is amazing that people can still be surprised by Benjamin Netanyahu. After 15 years as prime minister – except for the one year of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid and not including the three years in the ‘90s – if there is one thing Netanyahu excels at it is never taking responsibility.
Nevertheless, people were surprised on Wednesday night when, during his address to the nation (that of course did not include any questions from reporters), he refused to take even a fraction of responsibility for the failures that led to the October 7 massacre. When he said the words “I am responsible”, some people later admitted that they had held their breath waiting for the next words which turned out to be: “to ensure the future of the state.” He takes responsibility for the future; not the past.
It was classic Netanyahu. Everyone else can take some of the blame – the IDF chief of staff, the head of the Shin Bet, the defense minister, and the head of Military Intelligence – but not him. Never.
It was not surprising because the culture that has been created in Israel over the last 15 years has been one of zero accountability. Here are just some examples – the Meron disaster in 2021 when 45 people were killed or the Carmel Forest fire in 2010 when 44 people were killed. When it comes to Hamas, Netanyahu was the person who vowed in 2009 that he would topple the terrorist group once he returned to the PMO but when he won the election, all he did for 15 years, was help stabilize Hamas’s rule over Gaza.
Even now, with the war raging, it is impossible to forget the prisoner swap that he personally pushed for – the release of Gilad Schalit in 2011 that saw the release of over 1,000 Palestinian terrorists, including the mastermind of the October massacre – Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar. Isn’t Sinwar’s release alone enough of a reason to say that mistakes were made and I should have done things differently? Not for Netanyahu and not in today’s Israel.
The truth is though, that for all the people who are surprised, they really only have themselves to blame because the writing has always been on the wall. Not necessarily for a massacre the likes of which shocked Israel, but for the mismanagement of everything that has to do with the war – from the military’s preparedness to the handling of the refugees from the South and the North and the country’s public diplomacy efforts.
Just take what happened on Tuesday night when Yocheved Lifshitz, the 85-year-old resident of Nir Oz was released from Hamas captivity where her husband Oded still remains.
On Tuesday, when leaving the hospital, she spoke to a group of journalists and dared to say that her Hamas captors had treated her nicely and provided the hostages with medical care, medicine, and food. Politicians and pundits pounced and Lifshitz became an enemy of the state who was accused of undermining Israel’s hasbara efforts to make the world understand that Hamas is a brutal murderous terrorist group.
It seemed that people had lost their minds. Lifshitz is 85 years old and had just returned from what can only be described as an unimaginable traumatic experience and people think it is okay to attack her? Let’s be clear: What’s undermining Israel’s public diplomacy is that the government is not functioning, there is no clear messaging and, if it were not for civilian efforts, the media campaigns being done would not even exist.
With all that said though, while it might make people feel better hearing Netanyahu take some responsibility and beat his chest in repentance, it is not important right now. What is important, is that Israel achieves a decisive victory over Hamas and potentially Hezbollah and Iran as well. That is what Israel needs. Netanyahu’s political future will need to be dealt with when this war is over.
But here is something to consider for all those who are certain that Netanyahu will not be able to remain in office. According to a poll taken this week by the Jewish People Policy Institute, Netanyahu’s approval rating is right now about 30%. Compare that to George W. Bush after 9/11 when his approval rating was at 90%, only to hit the low 30s by the end of his presidency. Starting so high meant that Bush had only one way to go – down.
What this might mean for Netanyahu is that starting so low, he only has one direction as well – up. In other words, don’t write him off so quickly.
Ancient wisdom
“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
This quote is from Sun Tzu, the legendary Chinese military strategist and author of The Art of War published sometime in the 5th century.
I was reminded of this quote this week when listening to Shas leader Arye Deri claim that Israel did not have a plan to attack Hamas in the Gaza Strip and that the formulation of one, was that which was delaying the ground offensive.
Later that day, we heard that President Joe Biden had asked Israel to delay the offensive to allow for a possible release of hostages and then other reports came out, that the reason the IDF was not given the green light was due to Netanyahu, who was simply hesitating to send in ground forces like he has done in all prior Gaza operations.And then there is another possibility – what Israel is really looking at is the border in the North and while Hamas does need to be destroyed, to the extent that is possible, the war that might break out with Hezbollah is the one that matters more.
Deception is always a key part of any military campaign. It was used by Israel in December 2008 when Israel pretended that it was easing restrictions on Gaza only to get Hamas terrorists to come out into the open and hit them from the air in Operation Cast Lead. It was used in 2007 when Israel fooled the world into thinking that a war with Syria was coming because of the outcome of the Second Lebanon War when really it was because the IDF was planning to destroy a Syrian nuclear reactor.
Even Hamas used deception to put Israel to sleep ahead of the October 7 attacks by getting the intelligence agencies to believe that the terrorist group was not interested in war.
Governments, militaries, and terrorist groups regularly use deception as a tactic during times of emergency. If the Israeli war cabinet is functioning as it should, then there are only a handful of people who know the full extent of Israel’s plan. Let’s hope that is the case.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and the immediate past editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.