Carolina Landsmann When Netanyahu has enemies like that | Opinion
haaretz.com
Bottom line: Haaretz, through its Editor-in-Chief
Aluf Benn and columnist Gideon Levy who has become a symbol of the
paper, told its readers over the past week that Benjamin Netanyahu is
Winston Churchill and Benny Gantz, the previous head of the Israel
Defense Forces, is a war criminal.
You can actually imagine Netanyahu rubbing his hands with glee while reading this and thinking: With enemies like that, who needs friends?
The analogy that Benn drew between the prime minister and Churchill
isn’t original. Netanyahu did it first. For over 20 years, Netanyahu
has been forcing on the world the comparison between himself and the
British leader, and has drawn a parallel between “now” – whichever the
year – and Munich 1938.
The
equivalence between Netanyahu and Churchill, and between “now” and
Munich 1938, is echoed by all of Netanyahu’s supporters. You could
almost say that accepting it means devotion to Netanyahu. A person who
is taken captive by Netanyahu’s perception of reality will find it hard
to put in Churchill’s spot in the historical equation anyone who isn’t
Netanyahu.
Real
opposition to Netanyahu – not merely to differentiate him in the
campaign for prime minister – involves a rejection of his historical
construction. It means refusing to see Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as Hitler’s
Germany, as Netanyahu demanded the world do in the early ‘90s, and
refusing to cast Iran in today’s role of the “Nazi monster.”
Barack
Obama refused. Donald Trump was taken captive. So the Israeli right
loathed Obama and spread the gospel according to Netanyahu: The British
appeasement of the Nazis is equal to Obama’s appeasement of Bashar Assad
and his chemical weapons and the Iranian nuclear program. This is why
the Israeli right worships Trump.
“I’m a simple girl,
and also a coward” – wrote Israeli author Irit Linur, one of Netanyahu’s
new fans, on Facebook after the United States withdrew from the nuclear
agreement with Iran. “So if I had lived … in England in 1938, I’d
support Neville Chamberlain 100 percent … and I’d be scared of Churchill
about as much as I’d be scared of Hitler.”
But
now that “Iran is Nazi Germany,” and Linur is no longer “a cowardly
Brit of the previous century but a Jewish Israeli who has observed the
results of Chamberlain’s peace,” she concludes that “in this round I
prefer the Churchills.” In other words, Netanyahu.
But
Benn isn’t a “simple, cowardly girl.” He’s the editor of Haaretz. So
his article, regardless of its nuances and the way he seemingly uses the
equation between Churchill and Netanyahu to criticize Netanyahu, grants
“objective” validation to the historical paradigm that the Israeli
leader is recycling.
>> Read more: Yes, Netanyahu Really Is Like Churchill | Opinion ■ You Forgot Something Important About Benny Gantz | Opinion
This, however, is
exactly the paradigm that an Israeli leader needs to crack for us to
finally be able to think anew. That’s why anyone who sees the abyss into
which Netanyahu is rolling Israel must resist the temptation for
intellectual gymnastics in the historical playground that Netanyahu has
built. It’s simply too dangerous.
Levy can’t resist either.
He couldn’t even wait for Gantz to organize his political forces before
pouncing on him. Like an outstanding soldier of Netanyahu’s, Levy
volunteered to assassinate Gantz politically, to brand him a war
criminal. Is Netanyahu also politically unfit? Oh no, he was “only” the
prime minister when his chief of staff, Gantz, opted for “unnecessary
wars” and then allegedly carried out war crimes.
“Netanyahu
is here to stay,” Levy once said after meeting him. He added that in
view of his possible replacements, “we may miss him yet.” As I said,
with “enemies” like Haaretz, who needs friends like Israel Hayom?
Carolina Landsmann
Haaretz Contributor
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