The Israeli left, the NY Times, and Netanyahu
This Tablet article by Gadi Taub is terribly depressing, although nothing in it is new to me and nothing should be a surprise. I think it’s especially disheartening, though, because it puts it all together in fairly succinct fashion: the self-destructive fantasy world of the left, which in some leftists is a result of naive idealism that flies in the face of reality and in others is merely a cover for the lust for power and hatred of the right; and the continual willingness of media outlets such as The New York Times to serve leftist purposes (and to get awards for it). In post-10/7 Israel, which is the topic of the article, the hatred of the left for Netanyahu rivals any Trump derangement in the US.
Some excerpts follow:
October 7 presented the Israeli left with a daunting challenge: how to prevent the Hamas massacre from sounding the death knell of its most cherished dream, the so-called two-state solution. …
But how could the left leverage an event that showed its side was wrong in its fundamental assumptions about Israel’s neighbors against the right, whose position was vindicated? The answer is simple: Lay Oct. 7 at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s feet.
That was the tactic from the start. As the article points out, the New York Times has been pressed into the service of attacking Netanyahu and presenting him as a monster:
A recent example of this revisionism is an 11,000-word New York Times Magazine piece by Patrick Kingsley, Ronen Bergman, and Natan Odenheimer, titled “How Netanyahu Prolonged the War in Gaza to Stay in Power.” …
The piece puts forward a neat storyline that echoes the Israeli left’s articles of faith: Netanyahu could have ended the war with a hostage deal in April 2024. However, he keeps prolonging the war to satisfy the radical, irrational hawkish wing of this coalition, all to stay in power. The real reason Netanyahu is desperate to remain in office, the piece argues, is so that he can appoint a new attorney general and thereby quash his prosecution on corruption charges.
Only, there isn’t a single true link in this imaginary chain of political logic.
The article goes on to demolish every one of the points the left makes against Netanyahu – who of course isn’t perfect but is hardly guilty of the charges the left mounts. It’s well worth reading for an overview. But perhaps the most poignant and mendaciously twisted lie by the left regarding Netanyahu and the war is this:
But the piece’s most egregious deception is its distortion of the historical record regarding the responsibility for the immense intelligence failure that led to the Hamas invasion. Kingsley, Berman, and Odenheimer exonerate the security officials directly responsible and blame the man whom these officials didn’t bother to brief until after the attack was underway.
In the authors’ rendering, military and Shin Bet intelligence saw the attack coming, but Netanyahu refused to heed their warnings. …
Israel’s responsible adults, such as former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, the piece adds, “tried to reach Netanyahu, in a previously unreported effort to get the prime minister to read Saar’s findings,” to no avail. Netanyahu stubbornly ignored repeated, written warnings by the security establishment. Shin Bet head Ronen Bar also tried to convince Netanyahu that real danger was looming, the piece adds. Netanyahu turned a deaf ear to his warnings, too.
This is not a misinterpretation. It is a falsification of the record. … These officials were so confident that no danger from Gaza was imminent that, even after the signs of an impending invasion were accumulating during the night between Oct. 6 and 7, they dismissed them and left the soldiers in the perimeter sound asleep to be slaughtered in their beds by Hamas.
The security chiefs’ mutiny against civil authority persisted until 6:29 a.m. on Oct. 7, as they did not inform the minister of defense or the prime minister of what was happening throughout the night. We now know from the little we can glimpse of their considerations that they seemed to have been more worried about “miscalculation”—a euphemism for their fear that their hawkish boss would overreact to intelligence and start a war—than they were about an impending Hamas attack. …
We now know that IDF intelligence had the full Hamas plan of attack and that the intelligence brass dismissed it as “fantasy.” The women at the scouting centers watching the border up close, some of whom were slaughtered or taken hostage on Oct. 7, likewise warned of Hamas training in plain sight at the border fence. The confidence of the security chiefs in their mistaken assessment never wavered. They overruled this evidence, too.
They were far more worried about Netanyahu than about the slaughter.
The left clings to its delusions, because giving them up is too difficult and too filled with guilt and shame. As I’ve said before, a mind is a difficult thing to change – especially if it involves saying you were wrong.
I don’t have to say ” go to hell” there’s a special place for this lot already prepared.
The fact remains that no amount of documentation, no amount of verifiable evidence would ever convince anyone on the left that Netanyahu wasn’t to blame. For example, they all believe that reports of hamas’ atrocities on October 7 are complete lies, including the live video evidence.
Were their characters like this in old testament?
One suspected meir dagan one of the founders of black cube was part of the poison well set against netanyahu as in the iran question
One clear aspect of the Israelis’ difficulty writ large is plainly visible in the contrast with US Constitutional delegation of powers (government functions ceeded by the sovereign people, as distinguished from “rights” which inhere solely in human individuals, under our founding theoretical principles reaching back to Hobbes), where the domains of powers are not well delineated in the Israeli “constitutional” configuration.
For instance: The Prime Minister (or his Justice Minister) cannot fire the Attorney General and make it stick without the Attorney General saying “No! You can’t fire me!” and the Supreme Court jumps in to agree, saying in effect ” Right! That is our discretionary decision!”. Same deal with the Shin Bet head. The IDF trots alongside as well: a political institution pretending to be non-political, a separate sovereignty unto itself. This is all, frankly, NUTS on its face. It is no damned wonder they’re in such dire straits.
And even while this (HUGE) problem can be well understood, simply characterized and generally intelligible to the demos — the sovereign people under democratic regime — it cannot be repaired simply, and quite impossibly under the political constraints of a wartime goverment attempting to preserve the nation in the first order of duty, while bombarded from within by power seeking opposition, concomitantly bolstered by conniving coalitional figures.
This isn’t to say “There is no way out!”. It is to say that we see a man who has navigated this Scylla and Charybdis over three years now without buckling; if anyone alive can think this through to a salvaging solution, this guy Netanyahu is that guy. Yet even for him, tremendous doubt has to be warranted.
Israel cannot be saved in spite of itself. If so many of the people who actually live with what’s going on there don’t want to do what needs to be done, I’m not sure what any of us here who only read about it can possibly say or do that would make a difference.
There’s nothing WE can tell them. That would work about as well as when foreigners come here to tell us how it is and what we should be doing.
@miguel cervantes:Were their characters like this in old testament?
Of course there were. What an odd question. Numbers Chapter 11:
You can learn a lot from reading the Bible, miguel.
NIketas:
What is your definition of “so many”? The majority of Israelis are on the right. But the left has entrenched power in the judiciary, the press, and parts of the military.
Also, don’t forget that 20% of Israelis are Arabs.
@neo:What is your definition of “so many”?
“So many” is “enough to stop Netanyahu from doing what needs to be done”. Doesn’t need to be 50% + 1.
The majority of Israelis are on the right.
Not sure what that has to do with anything. If the “right” is a numerical majority, but they still let the left screw it up for everyone, then it still got screwed up for everyone. Same thing applies us to in this country, of course.
And there’s nothing WE here who only read about this stuff can do for THEM there who live with it. THEY have to do it. They are the ones who really know what is going on and what the true pros and cons are, we get a carefully filtered view.
If their form of government lets the left take over everything and elections don’t matter, then they have to change in some other way don’t they, especially if their national survival is at stake? It would not be the first time a country had to do such a thing.
We have seen there are nodes in military intelligence in the judiciary in private security i mentioned black cube (who btw ronan farrow got it backward)
The ones along with the arab party blocked netanyahu from office four times
If their form of government lets the left take over everything and elections don’t matter, then they have to change in some other way don’t they, especially if their national survival is at stake?
This was what Netanyahu was trying to accomplish before 10/7/23 with his judicial reforms. The Israeli left went bananas, with protests in the streets, and there were plenty of high-ranking military and intelligence officials on their side. I think it played a role in their keeping Netanyahu out of the loop on 10/7. I’d hesitate to go so far as saying they deliberately facilitated the attack to hurt Netanyahu, but it seems possible.
The Knesset finally did pass judicial reforms last March, and it was immediately appealed to — of course — the supreme court. I’m not sure if they’ve made a ruling yet. And then there’s the incident sdferr refers to above, where the SC overruled firing the AG. And neo has noted here before that the corruption charges against Netanyahu are bogus lawfare.
Yes, it’s Israel’s problem, but let’s not pretend it’s an easy thing to change, and we have to understand what Bibi has been up against. We are having similar problems here, but are fortunate that our SC is more balanced. In Israel it is completely dominated by the left and they will not give up power.
Not merely not give up power (as I understand it) Jimmy, but create judicial/political powers for themselves out of whole cloth, going so far in the most present circumstance that the chief Justice has unlawfully appointed himself to his own position! I mean, it’s absurd on its face, and yet . . . he remains there.
@Jimmy:Yes, it’s Israel’s problem, but let’s not pretend it’s an easy thing to change
If I see anyone do that I will be sure to tell them not to do it.
In Israel it is completely dominated by the left and they will not give up power.
If national survival is truly at stake, then the part of Israel not on the left will have to take power from the left. If they don’t, Israel does not survive. Nobody’s desires or intentions will matter at that point.
And it is entirely up to them, if they let the left drive them off the cliff. No, it’s not easy. Wasn’t easy for anyone who changed the government extralegally. Need not be violent–de Gaulle didn’t kill anybody in 1958 (in 1961 1 guy did get killed). Nonetheless if it must be done, we can’t do it for them, regardless if by “we” you mean people who live in the US and comment at neo, or if you mean the US government.
Lieberman the foreign minister had warned of such a scenario in 2018 but that was discarded the brief skirmish in 21 affected some hamas structures but not many and they were under pressure from washington
After the jigzaw cabinets with blue and white there was little attention as they wanted to curry more favor with the arab parties (feeding the crocodile) some of the training was happening in the denied area of beirut (the gliders for insfance) much of the general staff and intel are still enraptured in the oslo delusion other parts of the zysgy were involved in the law fare campaign against netanyahu and the wider israeli right
An analogue thing happened in the months before 9/11 with the whole brouhaha over the election with the slow walking of mid level officials there were some scattered reports but no specifics about targets means or timetables
The 2001 pdb was not determinative in fact it was less informed than the one in 99
Nonetheless if it must be done, we can’t do it for them
And if I see anyone say that we can, I’ll be sure to correct them.
But the serious point is that Bibi and the Israeli government unfortunately operate under a magnifying glass, and world opinion has an influence. So it’s important to set the record straight, even if most Israel haters aren’t interested in facts.
The Jewish left in Israel now commands about 7.5% of the vote. Israel has what Gottfried Dietze called a ‘flexible constitution’. If the majority get fed up with the Supreme Court, it can be dissolved via statutory law.
The intel big shots don’t have to be malevolent, although that looks like the most likely reason, to screw up by not wanting to Do Stuff, with all that means in terms of personnel, budget, command changes. Too much nothing happening for too long and the resistance to Taking Steps is strong.
But there’s still malevolence.
Back the truck up.
Re: “October 7 presented the Israeli left with a daunting challenge: how to prevent the Hamas massacre from sounding the death knell of its most cherished dream, the so-called two-state solution. …
But how could the left leverage an event that showed its side was wrong in its fundamental assumptions about Israel’s neighbors against the right, whose position was vindicated? The answer is simple: Lay Oct. 7 at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s feet.”
“A recent example of this revisionism is an 11,000-word New York Times Magazine piece by Patrick Kingsley, Ronen Bergman, and Natan Odenheimer, titled “How Netanyahu Prolonged the War in Gaza to Stay in Power.” …
The piece puts forward a neat storyline that echoes the Israeli left’s articles of faith: Netanyahu could have ended the war with a hostage deal in April 2024. However, he keeps prolonging the war to satisfy the radical, irrational hawkish wing of this coalition, all to stay in power. The real reason Netanyahu is desperate to remain in office, the piece argues, is so that he can appoint a new attorney general and thereby quash his prosecution on corruption charges.”
Even operating on the assumption that Netanyahu is prolonging the war and for the ‘reasons’ cited… that in NO way disproves that the Oct 7th attack proved the left IS wrong in its fundamental assumptions about Israel’s neighbors. And that the right’s position has been decisively vindicated. This rationale is simply a distraction intended to confuse and obfuscate recognition of the source of jihad, which is Islam.
Now that a brutal reality has destroyed the fantasy world of the ‘naive’ on the left, only a willful blindness motivated by moral cowardice can ignore and excuse future Islamic attacks, which makes them culpable in future attacks because they are condoning and thus obstructing an effective response.
Those leftists whose motivation is a lust for power and hatred of the right for acting as an obstacle to their lust for power are simply evil.
“or if you mean the US government.”
Strawman much, nik? Did you get that from your unimpeachable reddit talk forums?
@FOAF: Strawman much, nik?
It’s not a strawman. Since I don’t read minds, I presented it as a possibility of what some might mean by “we”, and you might notice I offered more than one. Even if you don’t, every word written is up there for everyone to read. It’s not an oral conversation where you can lie about people say and get away with it.
Did you get that from your unimpeachable reddit talk forums?
Strawman much? If you’ve wasted your time and effort tracking things I’ve said in comments from weeks ago, then the lie is pretty obviously intentional. But you’re not the only stalker I have who does this, and you’re doing me no harm. The mean girl thing is just not a good look for grown ups, in my opinion, and the slang really is a bit dated.
At any rate I’m not an Israeli, or a leftist, and I’m hence not part of Israel’s leftist problem. If there’s anything you can think of I can do about Israel’s leftists, I’ll be delighted to hear about it.
Yawn
There were certainly figures in the intel establishment like robert malley who really seem to be directing policy in favor of salafi emirates like gaza and enabled the taliban takeover many of these tier to qatars influence operation
Which trump tried to kneecap in 2017 but they got back with the khashoggi ap
If one draws a Venn Diagram representing how the NYT treats Netanyahu and Trump, it would be a perfect overlap.
Speaking of Malley it’s amazing how he has just vanished from the news since he was accused of passing classified intel to Iran. Or not so amazing…
Like the cheshire cat it seems, hes still? Teaching at princeton like mousavian his opposite number who admitted he had deceived the western negotiators
Malley founded the international crisis center that directed the khashoggi ap they were brethren even though one is jewish the other arab
@ Jimmy > “I’d hesitate to go so far as saying they deliberately facilitated the attack to hurt Netanyahu, but it seems possible.”
Everything except what is objectively impossible is possible, even if not very probable.
However, IF (big if) the “high-ranking military and intelligence officials ” keeping silent about the warnings, even the imminent-action ones, wanted Netanyahu to appear indifferent to attacks by Hama and give them some ammunition against him; and IF they assessed the likelihood of the alleged plans and practices to be unlikely to generate any more danger than the usual attacks; and IF they thought they could contain any damage to an acceptable level (how many dead and wounded are acceptable to make a Leftist omelet?); THEN they might have done what we now know (and were pretty sure about in 2023) that they did for that reason.
That they are not taking responsibility for any of their own dereliction on 10/7 is still despicable, no matter what their motives were at the time; more so if the hypothetical above is generally true.
A few years ago I would have dismissed immediately such callous disregard for the people they had the duty to protect; lately, not so much.
If Trump gets after the cartels in a military fashion, what will happen?
Probably cross-border raids to slaughter Americans in their homes. So that might be an analog of the set-up prior to Oct 7 in Israel. Are we sure nobody in the relevant positions would allow that to happen in order to damage Trump and republicans?
@ Richard – I devoutly hope you are too pessimistic, but the times are such that it can’t be completely ruled out.
Aesop
Agree.
Blame can be cast in lots of directions without any direct connection. I recall, during Katrina, hearing that BUSH WAS INFORMED THE LEVEES WERE GOING TO BE OVERTOPPED1111.
Point being, of course, to get the irrational haters to think….what? Bush should have grabbed a shovel and a couple of sand bags? Didn’t matter. I knew people who recited it as if it proved Bush’s failures.