The first sign that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lost his mind came on Sunday morning, when the cabinet meeting was cancelled. The cabinet is not a “good morning, first graders” photo op. It is the governing board of the country. It is not supposed to go on vacation when a national tragedy occurs.
This bizarre incident recalled Netanyahu’s disappearance in the hours following the Hamas attack on October 7 and the evidence accumulating since then that it is completely dysfunctional. On Sunday too, Netanyahu finally released a video only belatedly, long after US President Joe Biden, US Vice President Kamala Harris, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, ministers and other senior politicians had made comments.
He could have said the same thing at the beginning of the cabinet meeting and then asked the ministers to observe a moment of silence. Instead, he hid.
His behaviour makes one suspect, more than reasonably, that under pressure, he simply does not work. And when he returns, so do the overdone make-up, the empty slogans and the evil, that is, the liar and the swindler.
“Anyone who kills hostages doesn’t want a deal,” he said. As usual, all he had to do to start a different conversation among his base was to present a counter-demand that sounded internally logical. The poison machine does the rest.
The second sign of panic came later in the day, when the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement about his phone call to the family of Alexander Lobanov, one of the six hostages who were killed. He used words we never expected to hear from him: “he apologized” and “asked for forgiveness” (for not being able to bring his son home alive).
Since the last hostage deal, nine months ago, at least 27 hostages have been killed (or killed by Israeli fire). Yet he never before saw fit to say anything that would hint at his responsibility for the fate of human beings held in Hamas captivity because of his mistakes. He even deliberately avoided doing so. He didn’t even bother to call. Only now did he find the words.
Okay, now let’s give the thumbs up to all his spokesmen and the militant forums where he finds support: no medical miracle has happened here. This ruthless, cynical and tone-deaf man has not softened and become human overnight, but his political seismograph remains sharp and has detected significant movement in the tectonic plates.
Mass demonstrations were organised across the country, the first and most important of which was the one held in front of the Defence Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, which showed every sign of being a replica of the mass protests that forced him to rescind his dismissal of Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in March 2023. The Histadrut labour federation called for a general strike. There were spontaneous initiatives by companies that gave up their profits and closed their doors.
The moment he has been dreading – when grief will turn to anger, exhaustion will give way to energy, apathy and “normality” will disappear and the Ayalon Highway will once again be ablaze – seems closer than ever. That is the last thing he needs.
All this created an urgent need to change his terminology. He had to express emotions, to pronounce the word that was previously taboo. As Elton John once said in a song, “sorry seems to be the hardest word.” But nothing is authentic about him. Everything is planned, designed, disgustingly transparent.
And his empty words were swallowed up by the sea of screams, protests and tears that swept the country. Even though the six hostages were killed before or during Thursday night’s meeting of the security cabinet that will go down in history and their deaths were not the result of a criminal decision, a vast majority of the public, including on the right, was furious.
The demonstration on Sunday evening was massive. The partial general strike that began on Monday morning will probably end in the evening. Netanyahu will tell himself: “I have survived. I will continue on.” But we cannot give up.
The time has come for drastic measures. The families of the hostages and the activists are ready. They have lost hope in the face of this cruel leader, whom Einav Zangauker has rightly called “Mr. Death”. But they will not be able to influence the situation alone. If Sunday night remains an isolated event, the cabinet of blood will continue to stand.
However, it is difficult to remain hopeful. Public anger (and strong American pressure), which manifested itself on Gallant Night last year, prevented the defense minister from being fired. But then, the fate of the government did not hang in the balance as it does now. Gallant Night 2 will not force Netanyahu to come to an agreement, because his personal and political survival is a thousand times more important than the lives of the hostages.
The defence minister is on the brink of a precipice. His pleas to the cabinet, which he repeated on Sunday night, to give priority to the lives of the hostages who die week after week fell on deaf ears from this hard-hearted bunch. Some openly expressed their disgust with him. Gallant has still not recovered from the Philadelphia manoeuvre in the cabinet. He – and the rest of us – received another heart-breaking proof of his rightness.
It is difficult to overstate the gravity of the situation. The army and the minister in charge of it are calling for a hostage agreement and a ceasefire, not out of weakness or defeat, but out of reason, responsibility, values and humanity. The leader refuses and is backed by the pack of donkeys that constitutes the most insensitive and irresponsible cabinet in the history of the country.
In all the history books, in the chapters devoted to the darkest events in the craziest countries, it would be difficult to find a similar situation. They know that the formula they themselves helped sell to the public about the hostages changed long ago: military pressure will not rescue the hostages, it will kill them. But that is not a big deal, they will find another one.
The protests that erupted on Sunday have indirectly strengthened Gallant. A decisive majority of the country, which wants a deal and prioritizes the lives of the hostages, backs the defense minister and the military establishment. Therefore, none of them, from Gallant to Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi and Major General (reserve) Nitzan Alon, can be allowed to leave their posts.
There are two cabinets in Israel today: one that is sensible and business-like, and another, made up of Netanyahu and the other power-addicts, that is political and selfish. The problem is that it is the second cabinet that will make the decisions, and only Gallant represents the first cabinet.
In its current composition, the government will never approve a deal. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, Yariv Levin, Miri Regev and the rest of this criminal gang began on Sunday evening to call the protesters Kaplanists and Arnon Ben-David, the leader of the Histadrut labor federation most friendly to the government, a leftist.
It was to be expected that they would strive to escape into their comfort zone of “us and them.” The same people who tried to assassinate Israeli democracy and failed are now striving to bring about the deaths of real human beings. In this they are succeeding.
During his pointless speech to the U.S. Congress, accompanied by a cocky grin, Netanyahu cracked a hackneyed Internet joke dating back to the start of the war. Watching LGBTQ protesters in support of Hamas, he said, was like watching chickens protesting for Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Similarly, Netanyahu’s appearance on Capitol Hill that day wearing a yellow ribbon was arguably like watching the CEO of McDonald’s proclaiming the sanctity of cattle life.
