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The Myopia of the Bibi-ists

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a ceremony marking Memorial Day for fallen soldiers of Israel’s wars and victims of attacks, at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery, May 13, 2024. Photo: Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool via REUTERS

Benjamin Netanyahu was probably Israel’s best finance minister and public spokesman (second maybe to the more erudite Abba Eban). However, despite efforts by his supporters — “Bibi-ists” — to craft a flattering narrative around the man they call “King Bibi,” recent events have tarnished his legacy.

The turning point was the Oct. 7 massacre that happened on his watch. Since that horrible day, Netanyahu has sounded like Sgt. Schultz, the hapless German guard in a fictional POW camp in the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes.

In the show, the American prisoners always conducted a covert campaign against the Germans under his nose, leading to his frequent retort, “I see nothing, I hear nothing, and I say NOTHING!!!”

While the leaders of Israel’s defense and intelligence agencies have accepted responsibility for the failure to protect Israel, Netanyahu, who fancies himself as “Mr. Security” and the world’s authority on terrorism, has avoided accountability. He has turned Harry Truman’s famous dictum, “The buck stops here,” on its head. For Netanyahu, the shekel stops anywhere but here.

Defense Minister  Yoav Gallant called for an investigation into the failures on and before Oct. 7. Netanyahu said that couldn’t be done while the war continued, meaning he could delay it for months or perhaps years. Gallant insisted the inquiry couldn’t wait.

Netanyahu also got into a fight with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, after Netanyahu blamed the military for the lack of progress in hostage negotiations. He said the IDF wasn’t applying enough pressure on Hamas.

A furious Halevi said, “These words are serious. I demand that the prime minister apologize.”

Reportedly, Netanyahu did not respond.

Netanyahu subsequently pulled a Sgt. Schultz in a meeting with bereaved families of observation soldiers murdered on Oct. 7. Fifteen were killed and six taken hostage. The prime minister claimed he did not know the soldiers had reported seeing indications that Hamas was planning an attack, or that the women responsible for the surveillance at the border were unarmed, or that no one from the government or Knesset had come to visit them.

“All this information — it’s astonishing to me that I’m hearing this,” was Netanyahu’s reaction.

Netanyahu promised to defeat Hamas and bring all the hostages home. After nearly nine months, neither has happened. Meanwhile, the IDF spokesperson admitted Israel cannot defeat Hamas, and his military advisers have echoed American insistence that Israel must formulate a strategy for postwar Gaza to avoid chaos, but he won’t hear of it.

The Bibi-ists would prefer to ignore how we got to this point.

A brief reflection reveals a troubling pattern: From his divisive rhetoric after the Oslo Accords to his tenure marked by corruption indictments and coalition compromises with extremists, Netanyahu’s leadership has polarized Israeli society and alienated global allies.

In 1995, Netanyahu demonized Yitzhak Rabin. Many on the left still blame his incitement for Rabin’s assassination, which the right laughs off. Now Netanyahu and the Bibi-ists claim the provocation of the left is endangering the prime minister.

Netanyahu attacked Rabin for reluctantly shaking Yasser Arafat’s hand and signing the Oslo Accords. After being elected, Netanyahu shook Arafat’s hand and agreed to further withdrawals from Judea and Samaria. Netanyahu also agreed to a division of Hebron, the holiest city in the territories. He continues to rail against Oslo, but has not withdrawn Israel from the agreements. The Bibi-ists are silent on the subject.

Before Oct. 7, Netanyahu fractured Israeli society by refusing to resign after being indicted for a variety of corruption charges and agreeing to bring racist extremists into his coalition to keep power. He further alienated much of the country and Jews abroad with his efforts to reform the judiciary to weaken its power and strengthen his own.

Even some of Netanyahu’s harshest critics give him credit for keeping Israel out of a war before Oct. 7. That policy of restraint, however, emboldened Israel’s enemies, whom he erroneously believed were deterred.

Hamas was severely weakened by Operation Cast Lead, initiated by Ehud Olmert in 2008, but it regained strength during Netanyahu’s tenure. Mistakenly believing Hamas could be appeased through economic incentives, he agreed to Qatar bringing Hamas suitcases of cash that enabled the terrorists to build the “metro” of tunnels in Gaza and expand their rocket arsenal.

The failure to prevent the Hamas massacre will force Israel to station troops in Gaza for an indefinite period after Ariel Sharon relieved Israel of the burden with the 2005 disengagement.

Not only did Hamas grow stronger under Netanyahu’s nose, but so too did Hezbollah, which vastly expanded and improved its missile inventory, and now can threaten most of Israel. The failure to deter Hezbollah forced 60,000 Israelis to leave their homes, and northern Israel is now uninhabitable.

Netanyahu is the first prime minister in Israel’s history to cede sovereign state land to an enemy. Whether he takes decisive action against Hezbollah to allow the residents to return is an open question. Doing so will likely require a bloody war that will wreak more havoc on the Israeli economy, cause widespread death and destruction on both sides, and further isolate Israel internationally once Lebanese civilian casualties mount.

Netanyahu has spoken incessantly about the existential threat posed by Iran, but has failed to stop its march toward building a nuclear weapon. The radical Islamic regime is closer today to having an atomic bomb than when he first became prime minister.

Iran has also succeeded in building an Axis of Resistance — proxies surrounding Israel — with Hezbollah, Iraq, and Syria in the north, Hamas in the south and a growing presence in the West Bank, and the Houthis in Yemen. Rather than make Israel more secure, Netanyahu made it less so.

Netanyahu justly took credit for improving Israel’s standing worldwide, most notably by signing the Abraham Accords. Since Oct. 7, however, Israel’s image has reached a historical nadir. His contentious relationship with key allies, especially the United States, has strained critical partnerships at a time when unified support is most needed.

Netanyahu picked a public fight with the United States over the delivery of weapons, but no one is asking why private American citizens and the Friends of the IDF must raise millions to provide equipment for the IDF. The prime minister failed to ensure that Israeli soldiers had everything they needed to defend the country.

Bibi-ists want to deflect blame onto ideological opponents. The problem with the blame-the-left argument is that the last “leftist” prime minister was Shimon Peres nearly 30 years ago. Who has been the prime minister in most of the years since then?

Calls for new leadership resonate widely among the Israeli public, frustrated by Netanyahu’s persistence in clinging to power. The Bibi-ists argue an election can’t be held during the war because it would be a distraction Israel can’t afford. Still, England held an election in 1945, two months before World War II ended, and without an election, Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister after the war began. Franklin Roosevelt won his fourth term during the final stages of the war.

With more than 100 Israelis still held hostage by Hamas, growing threats from Iran and its proxies, Israel’s isolation worsening, and Netanyahu’s looming criminal trials, the question is whether Netanyahu can restore the luster to his reputation and live up to the mythology created by the Bibi-ists.

Mitchell Bard is a foreign policy analyst and authority on US-Israel relations who has written and edited 22 books including: The Arab Lobby, Death to the Infidels: Radical Islam’s War Against the Jews and After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine.

The post The Myopia of the Bibi-ists first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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