In his more than three decades in politics, Benjamin Netanyahu has accrued almost as many nicknames as he has election wins.
There’s “The Magician” for his uncanny ability to grab victory from the jaws of defeat. “King Bibi” for staying atop Israeli politics longer than anyone else. And, universally, though not necessarily affectionately: plain old “Bibi”. But there is another one he revelled in, and which now appears in tatters: “Mr Security.” How did it all go so wrong?
It remains unclear as to how more than 1,000 Hamas militants managed to take Israel by such devastatingly deadly surprise, murdering – as President Isaac Herzog wrote – more Jews in one day than at any time since the Holocaust.
Hamas attack failures
I hate it when journalists shorten headlines to the point of ambiguity (This is a common way to save one short word but it only works if the noun/adjective forms of the attacking party are different)
Titlegore
Gosh, it’d be wonderful to see an end to the Netanyahu governments. I was really hoping the corruption scandals would do him in but I’d love to see a more level-headed person in charge.
fuck this clown. he is responsible for promoting hamas.
I hope Israel kicks this clown out of office.
He is responsible for hundreds of people getting killed.
This take seems really counterintuitive to me, but I’m no expert in Israeli politics I guess. Seems like you could use 9/11 as an analog though. In that case, the people bent over backwards to make sure that the bush administration had all the support they could ever want. Huge wins for the GOP in the 02 elections, fairly straight path to reelection in 04. It was fully five years later in 06 when voters finally started to sour on Bush and the Neoconservative project.
Do things really work that differently in Israel or is this article pandering click bait bullshit?
It probably depends on his enemies’ abilities to control the narratice. Bush was very effective at pushing the propaganda machine in the US, but in Israel it seems that the government had been moving troops away from the Gaza border before the attacks, meaning a succinct and persuasive politician could make him out to look like an incompetent clown with Israeli blood on his hands.
You don’t have to be an expert in Israeli politics, the article lays it out for you
Israeli history has taught us that each and every surprise and crisis led to the collapse of the government. That was the case in 1973 [after the Yom Kippur War] with Golda Meir, in 1982 with Menachem Begin in the first Lebanon war, and in 2006, with Ehud Olmert, in the second Lebanon War.
Seems like 9/11 is not a good analogue because Israelis are less tolerant of government security failures than Americans are.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It remains unclear as to how more than 1,000 Hamas militants managed to take Israel by such devastatingly deadly surprise, murdering – as President Isaac Herzog wrote – more Jews in one day than at any time since the Holocaust.
Indeed, according to Amit Segal, chief political commentator for Israel’s Channel 12, the surprise would be if Bibi’s prime ministership survives this war.
History certainly provides a useful comparison: the last time Israeli intelligence failed to anything like this degree – and with so many casualties – was almost 50 years ago to the day, when Egypt and Syria invaded Israel on Yom Kippur.
But after 10 months of facing down protests against his controversial and divisive judicial overhaul, his corruption case – and a near-death experience – this is battered and beaten Bibi, not the vintage version.
Such has been the shock and anger over Hamas’ spectacular assault that Israeli voters may ben open to more extreme ideas.
“A certain portion of the population will expect a very, very harsh response,” said Plesner, “and it will be based on a zero-sum game: it’s either us or them.” And this time, “Mr Security” may fail to deliver.
The original article contains 767 words, the summary contains 197 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Let’s hope so - that way at least a good thing can come out of this horrible situation
All his bombing of gaza is seen by the world, he’s guaranteeing with his actions now that more, similar tragedies will occur to Israel in the future.
