The Mad King

Bibi is Beyond Belief

Six months before Oct 7, 2023, I wrote a post called The Mad King. It was about how Bibi was tolerating the most outrageous behavior from government ministers, but fired the Minister of Defense for actually doing his job. The Minister of Defense was saying that the extreme judicial reform bills should be paused for a few weeks while an attempt is made to reach a compromise, in light of how they are tearing the country apart and causing serious harm to the ability of the IDF to protect Israel.

Two years after writing that post, the Mad King has gone to extremes that are simply staggering. Here is where Bibi is at right now:

• Not getting hostages back and simultaneously not attacking Hamas, in Israel’s longest war by far, with no apparent endpoint anywhere in sight, and no plan for the future of Gaza;

• Refusing to take any responsibility for Oct. 7, despite having been in power for most of the last two decades and having supported Qatar’s funding of Hamas, and despite every other person in a position of responsibility having either resigned or been fired, and despite 72.5% of the country believing he should take responsibility and resign;

• Almost never speaking to the nation and never taking questions from the press;

• Refusing to allow a State Commission of Inquiry into how the greatest disaster in Israel’s history took place, despite such an inquiry being wanted by 75% of the public;

• Trying to undermine the Supreme Court;

• Trying to fire the Attorney-General;

• Firing Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet, immediately following Bar’s opening a file on payments by Qatar - the financier of Hamas - to Bibi’s aides, on the grounds of “lack of trust”(!);

• Trying to legislate an exemption from IDF service for tens of thousands of charedim, while the IDF is suffering from such a manpower shortage that reservists are being endlessly called away from their lives and jobs and families;

• Transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to charedi institutions to fund their lifestyle of being anti-army and economically unproductive and harming Israel, in exchange for their political support, while Israel is suffering huge economic challenges as a result of the war;

• Still awaiting responsibility for the largest civilian disaster in Israel’s history - he was repeatedly warned that Meron was a disaster waiting to happen;

• Still under investigation for various corruption scandals, including the shocking submarine affair;

• Tearing apart the country (again) while the IDF is seeking permission to call up 400,000 reservists who need to fight in a spirit of national unity and positive morale.

To quote none other than Netanyahu himself in 2008 (regarding Olmert), “A prime minister up to his neck in investigations has no moral or public mandate to make fateful decisions for the State of Israel. There is a fear, I must say, and it is real and not unfounded, that he will make his decisions based on his personal interest for political survival, not on the national interest.” And the situation with Olmert was vastly less serious than the situation here! As Matan Kahana pointed out, any one of Bibi’s scandals on their own would be an earthquake. To have them all happen is unbelievable.

Two years ago, I wrote that Bibi used to be a great prime minister, but the problem with people who get drunk on power and narcissicism is that they reject any disagreement as unacceptable disloyalty, and they become willing to burn everything down around them in order to further their own selfish interests. It’s frightening to see the extent to which that is playing out. The Mad King himself will never step down, no matter how much harm he causes the country. But how do so many MKs and voters go along with it?!