The PM is gambling with Israeli lives in his last-ditch efforts to cling to power; Israel must reverse course, sooner rather than later. 

Just before the Passover holiday, as deadly Hezbollah rockets were raining down hourly on Israeli residents of the north, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on television bragging about IAF attacks on the Basij, the internal security forces of the IRGC charged with suppressing protests by Iranians opposing the tyrannical regime of the butchering ayatollahs.

Let that sink in for a moment: instead of concentrating entirely on taking out missile launchers in Iran OR Lebanon, Bibi was diverting Israel’s Air Force to attack a militia that operates purely domestically, and not against Israel or Israelis. 

Why? Because he is betting big on regime change in Iran, with the help of an uprising by the people. After promising and failing to deliver on “total victory“ against Hamas and Hezbollah – and watching his party’s unfavorable poll numbers stubbornly refuse to budge in his favor – Bibi senses that his only slim chance of staying in power after the next elections is to achieve at least one convincing victory on at least one of Israel’s fronts. And he needs to stay in power in order to continue to stymie his trial and stave off a conviction and jail sentence. 

This is the reason the panicked crook, who knows he is guilty, has been doing everything in his power for three years to derail his trial, namely: 

(1) Attempting to dismantle Israel’s independent judiciary, leading to internal divisions that encouraged Sinwar’s Hamas to start its war on October 7, funded by Netanyahu with Qatari money for decades; 

(2) Prolonging the war in Gaza long after defense experts had said it was won, at the cost of dozens of precious lives of IDF soldiers and hostages;

(3) Refusing to honor Israel’s pledge to proceed to Stage 2 of the ongoing hostage release cum cease-fire agreement with Hamas, leading the world to believe that the word of the Jewish state is not to be trusted;

(4) Promulgating legislation to hobble the attorney general, to effectively legalize ministerial corruption by abolishing the criminal offense of “fraud and breach of trust,” and to hamper police investigations into wrongdoing by politicians (already seriously curtailed by the lawless Minister of Internal Security Ben Gvir);

(5) Even stooping so low as to ask the president of the United States to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign ally by pressuring President Herzog to bypass all legal norms and issue a blanket pardon to a defendant still on trial (not to mention one who has neither confessed nor expressed remorse). 

Apropos Bibi’s unholy alliance with his alter ego Trump – both greedy, egomaniacal politicians with no moral compunctions whatsoever – Israel’s mainstream media have really fallen down on the job when it comes to understanding the nature of this partnership. This is especially disappointing in the light of the excellent job Israeli journalists have been doing in exposing the hypocrisy of Bibi’s bribing his draft-dodging anti-Zionist coalition partners with hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds that are more desperately needed for the war effort.

More than once, I have witnessed clueless Israeli news anchors press Knesset opposition leaders to praise Netanyahu for his success in convincing the United States of America to join with Israel in the current war on Iran. What they fail to understand is that Bibi’s alliance is not with the USA as a whole – rather, it is with the current ruling troika of Trump-Hegseth-Rubio, which wields tremendous power because, for the time being, Trump is the commander-in-chief of the greatest military force the world has ever known.

The key phrase here is “for the time being.” With every passing day, support for a Middle East war is waning among American voters of both parties, Republican and Democratic. Last month, the US House of Representatives only barely (by a mere seven votes) rejected a war powers resolution aimed at limiting the president’s ability to continue to wage the war on Iran. When Congress returns from its spring recess on April 12, debate on the War Powers Act will resume; and as gas and oil prices continue to rise, while Trump’s approval ratings in national polls continue to plummet, this slim margin is likely to narrow even further – perhaps even resulting in curbing altogether Trump’s military ambitions in conjunction with Netanyahu.

What is even more predictable is that after the midterm elections in November, when Trump is expected to be severely weakened politically, Israel is likely to be in a very bad way vis-a-vis support in the US Congress. The Democratic party – including its millions of Jewish voters – has already largely turned against Israel, blaming Bibi for dragging the US into an unwanted foreign war; and what was once the norm – bipartisan across-the-board support for Israel as America’s foremost ally in the Middle East – can no longer be taken for granted. 

In short, just as Bibi – through his mismanagement of the Gaza war – managed to turn Israel into a pariah nation in the world (squandering the sympathy we enjoyed in the wake of the atrocities of October 7), our shortsighted and self-centered prime minister has managed to isolate us even further, by alienating the electorate of the only superpower on which we must rely.     

At the time of this writing, the war continues unabated on three fronts, despite Defense Minister Yisrael Katz’s insistence (way back in November, 2024) that Israel had already achieved victory over Hezbollah. Yet Bibi is still determined to keep attacking targets in Iran that no longer threaten Israel directly, rather than turning his attention to the more immediate dangers coming from the Iranian proxy militia in Lebanon. He is prepared to sacrifice the lives of Israeli citizens – whom he is duty-bound to protect – on the slim chance that Trump will keep the war going long enough to encourage the Iranian people to come out in force and overthrow the IRGC. 

Since there is no guarantee that Bibi’s boss Trump will allow Israel to keep fighting Hezbollah after the American commander-in-chief decides he has had enough, it is way past time to demand four immediate about-faces:

1. For the IAF to focus 90% on destroying Hezbollah, and 10% on what is left to do in Iran. 

2. To re-allocate the last tranche of NIS 800 million that Bibi’s government tried to steal from the Treasury and shower on the Haredim, and transfer the funds immediately for the urgent construction of shelters and reinforced protected spaces in the towns, moshavim and kibbutzim along the Lebanese border; 

3. In the meantime, to fund the evacuation and relocation of residents of the far North under mortal threat from the constant barrages of Hezbollah rockets; and 

4. To engage fully in direct diplomatic talks with the government of Lebanon, which has signaled its willingness to end the state of war with Israel, while cooperating in efforts to disarm Hezbollah. Netanyahu is in a spat with Macron right now and not inclined to give credit to any initiative originating with the French president; but the stakes are too high for him to indulge his latest fit of pique. He has appointed his confidant Ron Dermer to handle this initiative, which is both good and bad news. The latter: Dermer is an expert at torpedoing progress, as he did at Bibi’s behest during negotiations with Hamas, securing the release of zero hostages. The more optimistic scenario: Dermer has the ear of the Trump administration; and if he can get Rubio and Vance on board, there is a chance for a real breakthrough in this arena of conflict.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)