After 500-plus days of using Israel\u2019s national emergency to defer elections, squelch national inquiries, and keep power despite failing catastrophically on October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is allowing us to return to normal.<\/p>\n
Apparently, we\u2019ve subdued our enemies enough for him to assail the national security establishment and the rule of law, demoralize reservists by refusing to address them honestly, and tolerate ultra-Orthodox draft evasion to keep his coalition staggering ahead. That justifies everyone demanding elections \u2013 now. In the spirit of our desperately needed national renewal, the prime minister should quit \u2013 along with all the other failed opposition leaders who were blinded by the conceptzia [or confirmation bias]: Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, and Yair Golan.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to believe that Netanyahu remains in power. Hasn\u2019t he gotten the memo? Israelis are fed up with him, his divisiveness, his contempt for democracy; with his refusal to take responsibility for October 7 and other disasters, with his hostility to any critics. Nearly three-quarters of Israelis want him resigning immediately or after the war.<\/p>\n
Yet he and his devotees keep earning gold medals in authoritarianism, bullying, and cowardice \u2013 distracting Israelis from genuine enemies outside by treating fellow citizens as traitors within.<\/p>\n
Alas, looking Left, they just keep demonstrating. Haven\u2019t they heard? Most Israelis are fed up with the blocked traffic and impotent fury.<\/p>\n
The hostage protesters sabotaged their own cause by weakening Israel\u2019s bargaining position, harassing Israeli leaders at home rather than protesting Qatari embassies worldwide. Now, a few fanatics foolishly keep infuriating most Israelis, feeding Bibistas\u2019 paranoid fantasies of a condescending Ashkenazi elite earning their gold medals in sore-loserdom. More shockingly: Who\u2019s the protesters\u2019 martyr this week? The Shin Bet head who, like Bibi, should resign for his October 7 failures.<\/p>\n
Extremists from both sides forget that our enemies delight in our divisiveness, our partisan venom.<\/p>\n
We must keep pressuring Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iran. We should correct the Israeli and foreign reporters claiming that Netanyahu only continues attacking Gaza for \u201cdomestic considerations.\u201d You have to dig deep in most articles blasting Israel\u2019s renewed bombings to find the word \u201chostages.\u201d Although Israel must protect its borders and keep crushing Hamas, the dynamics would change immediately if all the Gazan terrorists holding them released every hostage.<\/p>\n
WITH AT least two dozen Israelis still enduring unspeakable abuse in Hamas tunnels and \u201cinnocent\u201d Gazans\u2019 homes, Defense Minister Israel Katz finally warned that the more Hamas persists, \u201cthe more territory it will lose to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
This should have been clear long before October 7. When Hamas bombarded Israel after the 2005 Gaza disengagement, I proposed in these pages that Israel seize 10 meters of borderlands for each barrage. Territorial loss is the traditional language of war: Palestinians understand that language, too.<\/p>\n
Facing these threats, it\u2019s unconscionable that our (mis)leaders \u2013 especially Bibi \u2013 divide the country, depress our soldiers, and divert attention from Israel\u2019s existential fight for survival \u2013 domestically and internationally. Netanyahu should stop his manipulative attempts to rally his fanatic but dwindling band of supporters.<\/p>\n
I am not anti-Bibi in principle: I have repeatedly saluted Netanyahu for defying former US president Joe Biden and helping Israel weaken Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran. Having achieved those aims, now working with a friendlier administration, Netanyahu should call elections, retire, and let the debate rage over his legacy and culpability.<\/p>\n
In order to shame him and to model the self-sacrificing leadership Israel deserves, and to reject their old stale protest playbook, every opposition leader should resign.<\/p>\n
Go Home Gantz, Lapid, and Golan. Advise Ehud Barak and Bogie Ya\u2019alon and the other hysterics to stop talking. Anyone who was part of the security establishment and trusted our hi-tech Gaza border should teach Bibi and the Shin Bet\u2019s Ronen Bar how to retire gracefully \u2013 from public debate, too. Anyone who has so futilely divided Israel for so long should let others lead constructively.<\/p>\n
The search for new leaders shouldn\u2019t stop with everyone\u2019s favorite fantasy group, the reservists. It\u2019s time to diversify ethnically and geographically. I remember the look of disgust people from Sderot, Netivot, Kiryat Shmona, Metulah, and elsewhere had for months after October 7, 2023, whenever we discussed Netanyahu and his government\u2019s botches, especially the failure to gracefully and generously support many of those displaced. Let\u2019s find opposition leaders from among them, not just from the Kaplanists.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s change the tune. Claiming democracy has \u201cdied\u201d as demonstrators assert their democratic right to protest, instinctively cheering the opposite of whatever Bibi says, and being so blinded by anti-Bibi rage, doesn\u2019t change anything, but does further fragment. Articulate a positive, unifying vision around shared values and our shared fate.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s stop threatening not to serve, pay tax, or be patriotic \u2013 that undermines the justified critique of ultra-Orthodox draft-dodgers. And stop shrieking \u2013 it brings out the crazies and the craziness.<\/p>\n
Instead, how about organizing non-partisan moments of silence midday, simply demanding elections, stopping everything briefly, asserting power, commanding attention, minimizing harm. Then hosting salons transcending Left-Right, religious-secular, and ethnic divides, articulating a common Zionist and Israeli political agenda for a new age \u2013 with new leaders.<\/p>\n
On a brighter note, Passover prep has begun. The cleanser commercials and antacid ads remind us that the Jewish calendar keeps saving us \u2013 injecting moments of joy and reassurance during these difficult times.<\/p>\n
Passover warns against Pharaohs who bring plagues upon their people and yet blame everyone else for the troubles. We honor leaders like Moses: humble enough to know he\u2019s not indispensable but great enough to articulate a compelling vision of freedom from today\u2019s problems \u2013 and give way to his successors when he knows his time is up.<\/p>\n
Our stuck leaders, Left and Right, should quit, freeing us from their poison, so we can renew and rebuild our Promised Land \u2013 together.<\/p>\n