Benjamin Netanyahu Is a Successful Leader, Not a Magician

Following the inconclusive results of Tuesday’s election, weeks may elapse before a prime minister is chosen, and there is a chance that Benjamin Netanyahu’s political career isn’t over yet. Perusing the headlines about Netanyahu over the past year, Ruthie Blum notes how many have referred to him as a political “magician,” or some variant thereof. But this cliché misses the point:

It’s a propaganda ploy, because it enables a total dismissal of [Netanyahu’s] actual accomplishments, with an added whiff of the bemused awe associated with a spoon-bending performance [by the Israeli magician] Uri Geller. Indeed, with the stroke of a few computer keys, Netanyahu is reduced to the Wizard of Oz—some guy behind a curtain who has managed to pull the wool over the eyes of a public longing for courage, heart, wisdom, and a safe Jewish homeland to call its own.

The truth about Bibi, however, is that he is a master, not a magician. His maneuvering of Israel’s implausible political system—while running the country, conducting measured military operations against its many enemies, chief among them Iran, and diplomatic ones against the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement—is nothing short of miraculous. Denigrating it by suggesting that it’s more a function of trickery than of leadership is shameful.

This is not to say that Bibi warrants no criticism, or that without him at the helm, Israel is doomed. On the contrary, the Jewish state was established five months before he was born. It managed not only to survive but thrive for nearly five decades before he became prime minister for the first time in 1996. Nor is it reasonable or desirable to hinge the country’s continued resilience and strength on a single leader, no matter how great.

Netanyahu will not outlive the 200,000 or so babies who were born in the Jewish state since the beginning of 2018. But there is no doubt that he will go down in history as one of Israel’s and the world’s most influential and consequential leaders of all times. . . . Under [his] watch, the tiny war-torn Jewish state has become a world power to be reckoned with in every way, and not only the obvious ones, such as military prowess, high-tech genius and medical advancement. In the industries of cooking, fashion, movie and TV, too, Israel is a global player. In addition, despite repeated hysterical assertions, Israel is not “isolated.” . . . Israel’s economy is booming to such an extent that the ever-strengthening shekel has presented a problem to local manufacturers. And in spite of its over-the-top prices, the Holy Land is a prized tourist destination.

Read more at Jerusalem Post

More about: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Election 2019, Israeli politics

Why South Africa Has Led the Legal War against Israel

South Africa filed suit with the International Court of Justice in December accusing Israel of genocide. More recently, it requested that the court order the Jewish state to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip—something which, of course, Israel has been doing since the war began. Indeed, the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) has had a long history of support for the Palestinian cause, but Orde Kittrie suggests that the current government, which is plagued by massive corruption, has more sinister motives for its fixation on accusing Israel of imagined crimes:

ANC-led South Africa has . . . repeatedly supported Hamas. In 2015 and 2018, the ANC and Hamas signed memoranda of understanding pledging cooperation against Israel. The Daily Maverick, a South African newspaper that previously won an international award for exposing ANC corruption, has reported claims that Iran “essentially paid the ANC to litigate against Israel in the ICJ.”

The ANC-led government says it is motivated by humanitarian principle. That’s contradicted by its support for Russia, and by [President Cyril] Ramaphosa’s warmly welcoming a visit in January by Mohamed Dagalo, the leader of the Sudanese-Arab Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. Ramaphosa’s smiling, hand-holding welcome of Dagalo occurred two months after the RSF’s systematic massacre of hundreds of non-Arab Sudanese refugees in Darfur.

While the ANC has looted its own country and aided America’s enemies, the U.S. is insulating the party from the consequences of its corruption and mismanagement.

In Kittrie’s view, it is “time for Congress and the Biden administration to start helping South Africa’s people hold Ramaphosa accountable.”

Read more at The Hill

More about: International Law, Iran, South Africa