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Israel needs an immediate focus on securing its military, diplomatic, and economic stability.
By HERB KEINON DECEMBER 4, 2024 13:14
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are both seen in the Knesset in Jerusalem.
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
In the immediate days, weeks, and even months after Hamas’s October 7 attack, the country was awash with the ubiquitous slogan “Yahad Nenatze’ah” – together we will win.
Magnets with this slogan were distributed through newspapers, radio announcers ended their programs with it, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu closed his public remarks with those words or variations on that theme.
A lot has happened since then. The palpable sense of unity in the immediate aftermath has naturally fallen by the wayside, and divisions have reemerged.
Yet the war still rages on. IDF forces are still fighting in Gaza, where Hamas continues to cruelly hold 101 hostages. Despite the ceasefire signed with Lebanon this week, the situation in the North remains tenuous, and 60,000 Israelis are still unable to return home.
Tens of thousands of reservists remain in uniform, many having served well over 250 days since October 7, leaving their families crushed under the burden. Israel finds itself isolated on the global stage to a degree not seen in years. The ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, along with the readiness of some of Israel’s allies to honor those warrants, underscore this isolation.
In other words, we have not yet “won,” and the togetherness invoked in those slogans remains essential to face the enormous challenges not merely on our doorstep but in our living rooms.
Togetherness and unity do not mean uniformity of thought or opinion. Rather, it means a collective focus on getting Israel back on solid footing: militarily, diplomatically, and economically. It means working together toward that goal.
To achieve this, the country needs consensus – an immediate focus on securing its military, diplomatic, and economic stability.
It does not need actions or policies that hinder or make that focus unattainable. In other words, it doesn’t need the divisive issues dominating the headlines over the last few weeks, which risk undermining the very essence of yahad nenatze’ah – together we will win – and exacerbating divisions that jeopardize this kind of victory.
Here are a few of those issues – things the country can very much do without at this particular moment:
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A fight between the prime minister and the defense establishment
Despite the ceasefire in Lebanon, the country remains at war and on a war footing. This reality is evident in the tens of thousands of reservists who remain under arms.
The ceasefire in Lebanon, if it holds, closes just one front in this seven-front war, though it has a spillover effect on the others. However, the war is far from over.
As such, it is imperative that the political echelon and the defense establishment work in tandem and coordination. It is equally critical that the public perceives this to be the case. Millions of Israelis are being asked to make enormous sacrifices; the least they can expect is that the prime minister and the defense establishment are working together.
On Saturday night, Netanyahu released a nine-minute video criticizing the State Attorney’s Office, security services, and defense establishment for allegedly waging a “witch hunt” against him and his political camp. This accusation came in response to the arrest and detention of Prime Minister’s Office spokesman Eli Feldstein and an unnamed IDF noncommissioned officer in the reserves for allegedly stealing and transferring classified information. On Wednesday, a Tel Aviv District Court judge extended their remand until further notice.
Netanyahu spent as much time addressing this issue – which he described as a politically motivated attack – as he did explaining the ceasefire with Lebanon to the public in a separate video three days later.
The prime minister also accused the defense establishment, including the IDF, of intentionally withholding sensitive information from him. Meanwhile, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar has faced allegations of working at cross purposes with the prime minister, amid rumors that he may be dismissed.
There are two things Israel cannot afford at this time. First, the Shin Bet – on which the country depends to an extraordinary degree for its security – must not become demoralized due to what it may perceive as attacks on it and its leadership by the country’s top political leadership. Second, the public must not lose trust in the Shin Bet due to aspersions cast by the prime minister and his inner circle.
The country is at war. The Shin Bet needs to remain focused and functioning at its best.
The firing of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara
If anyone is working at cross purposes, it is Baharav-Miara and the Netanyahu government. This tension has existed from the outset – even before October 7 – during the judicial reform debate and has only intensified ever since.
Government ministers have accused Baharav-Miara of obstructing their plans, while the attorney-general has accused the government of gross overreach. On Wednesday, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi revealed that 13 ministers had signed a letter demanding her dismissal. A total of 17 ministers are needed to bring the matter to a cabinet discussion.
Firing Baharav-Miara at this time would amount to a political earthquake, likely driving hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, decrying the dismissal as an assault on democracy and the removal of a vital gatekeeper.
Such a move would almost certainly end up in the Supreme Court, which would likely overturn the decision, triggering a constitutional crisis the country cannot afford.
Judicial reform is a significant and pressing issue that Israel will need to address again – how to gradually reform the judiciary without undermining it. But now is not the time, and this is not the government to undertake it.
Pursuing it now would reignite passions to a fever pitch, once again exposing divisions the country cannot endure amid its current existential challenge.
For now, this issue would best be left alone.
Netanyahu taking the witness stand in his trial
After months of delay due to the war, Netanyahu is scheduled to take the witness stand on December 10 in his seemingly endless trial. The court agreed to postpone his testimony by eight days, after initially rejecting a request to delay it by a couple of months.
This means that for days and likely weeks on end, the prime minister will be in court undergoing examination and cross-examination instead of focusing on Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the hostages, the return of 60,000 residents to the North, and the countless other pressing issues demanding his attention.
This is unwise.
The country needs the prime minister – who is making decisions affecting the lives of millions – to focus on the existential challenges still confronting Israel, not on a trial.
In the US, the four outstanding federal and state criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump are being rapidly closed or frozen until he leaves office.
This isn’t to suggest that the same should necessarily happen here – though a case could be made for it – but it does suggest that Netanyahu’s testimony could be delayed until it becomes clear whether the ceasefire in Lebanon will hold or the war there will reignite, and until some resolution is achieved in Gaza.
The police began investigating Netanyahu eight years ago, he was formally indicted five years ago, and the trial has been ongoing now for more than four years.
A delay of a few months in a saga that, after all appeals, is not expected to conclude before 2028 is not unreasonable. It would enable Netanyahu to fully dedicate his time to managing the country’s current overwhelming crisis.
The country doesn’t need this testimony now. A few months from now, perhaps – but not now.
Resettling Gaza
Last week, KAN aired a program highlighting veteran settlement activist Daniella Weiss and her plans to reestablish Jewish settlements in Gaza.
According to the report, Weiss surreptitiously entered Gaza earlier this month to survey possible locations for future settlements. Last month, at a conference on resettling Gaza, Weiss stated that a movement she established already has six groups, comprising some 700 families, ready to move into Gaza. She also claimed that mobile homes had been purchased for that purpose.
Listening to her speak evoked flashbacks of Gush Emunim’s early efforts to settle Judea and Samaria: starting with a core of ideologically driven individuals, piggybacking on military outposts, bringing in tents and mobile homes for temporary housing, and establishing “facts on the ground” that the IDF would then struggle to dismantle.
This, too, is not something Israel needs right now.
According to a September Institute for National Security Studies survey, only 24% of the public supports reestablishing settlements in Gaza. At a time when the country desperately needs broad consensus to address its immense challenges, few things would disrupt that process more than a heated debate over settling Gaza: whether Israel should spend billions on such a venture, and whether soldiers should be deployed to protect these settlements, risking their lives in the process.
And that doesn’t even address the international backlash this would trigger. The Gaza war has already left Israel more isolated than it has been in years, but this is an isolation that many Israelis can bear because they believe in the justice of the cause.
Israel can face the world alone when its people feels that it is in the right and its actions are necessary and proper. It is unable to stand alone, however, when a majority of its own people doubt whether the country’s moves – often highly controversial – are necessary.
Resettling Gaza would clearly be an instance of the latter case.
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