The Bibiggest Lie In Israel Today

"Do you think we are stupid?"

You might think that the horrors described in the previous email would dominate the news cycle on Israel, but no. With the announcement of Naftali Bennett merging with Yair Lapid on a platform of different outlooks working together for the good of Israel, the government went into a frenzy.

No less than the Prime Minister himself, Bibi Netanyahu, put out a silly AI-generated image showing Bennett and Lapid as children in the back seat of a car being driven by Mansour Abbas, head of the Arab Ra’am party. The message is being pounded out again and again: Bennett and Lapid ran their previous government with the support of Abbas, Abbas is an Arab connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, and it’s inconceivable to vote for people who are relying on Arabs for their coalition.

This is a very powerful message. I’ve seen countless people whole-heartedly agree with. It’s simply inconceivable to do such a thing!

There’s just one problem with this argument.

Bibi Netanyahu himself tried to bring Ra’am into his coalition!

Of course he denies it now, because it would undermine his entire case against Bennett-Lapid. But it’s not some speculative theory; it’s absolutely true, attested to by many people, and beyond any doubt whatsoever. In fact, it’s so undeniably true that Rav Amichai Gordon of Yeshivat Har Etzion once wrote a furious article for Arutz Sheva titled “Do You Think We Are Stupid?” in which he railed against Bibi for not merely lying about this, but for having the audacity to issue a lie which is so clearly false.

All this was after the March 2021 election. Bibi and the Likud, as the largest party, was given the first chance to build a coalition. But even with the support of the non-Zionist charedim, they still couldn’t do it. And so they sought to recruit Mansour Abbas and Ra’am.

Bibi knew that this would be a challenge for his right-wing partners in the coalition. One path was simply to bribe them. A video was recently unearthed of Ben-Gvir talking about how Bibi offered him virtually any ministry of his choice if he would agree to Raam being part of the coalition.

But it was also necessary for Bibi to obtain senior rabbinic approval, which he set out to do. He got approval from R. Shmuel Eliyahu and R. Tau. A Likud MK brought Mansour Abbas himself for a meeting with Rav Druckman, the most significant figure in the Dati-Leumi community, and then eight rabbis were brought for an emergency meeting at Rav Druckman’s house to discuss how to make it happen.

Meanwhile, none other than Yinon Magel of Channel 14, Bibi’s most dedicated acolyte, was announcing publicly that the Right is very much in favor of cooperation with Arabs, and that he personally would like to see Mansour Abbas as a minister! (You can listen to the recording here.)

So why didn’t it happen? Because Smotrich was absolutely against it and blocked it. Smotrich himself, incidentally, is also on record as attesting that this is what Bibi and the Likud wanted to do.

One point to take from all this is the sheer audacious dishonesty of Bibi and the Likud campaign. Many politicians break promises, but this is active dishonesty taking place constantly. But there’s something much more important to think about.

If Bibi and the Likud and Yinon Magel were so supportive of the idea of bringing Ra’am into the coalition, then clearly it is not traitorous or unthinkable, as they would have you believe. This is surely not like when Bibi warmly greeted Yasser Arafat, which was presumably due to external political pressure. (The picture below, unlike the one shared by the prime minister above, is not AI.)

There must be a palatable justification, convincing enough for the rabbinic leaders of the dati-leumi community, for the inclusion of an Arab party in the coalition. What would that be? I will discuss it in a future post.