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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.
The post The Myopia of the Bibi-ists first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Communities in France, Germany, UK Form New ‘JE3’ Alliance Amid Surge in Antisemitism
From left to right: President Phil Rosenberg of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Josef Schuster of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Yonathan Arfi of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). Photo: Screenshot
The leading representative bodies of Jewish communities in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have formed a new alliance to amplify Jewish perspectives in international debates, amid a troubling rise in antisemitism across all three countries.
On Monday, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), and the Central Council of Jews in Germany announced the formation of the new “JE3” alliance during a conference of the Anti-Defamation League’s J7 Task Force — the largest international initiative against antisemitism — held in Berlin.
This new alliance, inspired by the E3 diplomatic format that unites France, Germany, and the UK to coordinate on key geopolitical issues such as nuclear negotiations with Iran and peace in the Middle East, aims to provide a united Jewish communal voice on these and other pressing international matters.
The newly formed group also seeks to strengthen existing umbrella organizations, such as the World Jewish Congress, the European Jewish Congress, and the J7 initiative — a coalition of Jewish organizations in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the United States.
“It is our hope that the JE3 will become a powerful voice for our communities on issues that we care about together,” Josef Schuster of the Central Council, Phil Rosenberg of the Board of Deputies, and Yonathan Arfi of CRIF said in a joint statement.
“It is particularly significant that we brought together the new grouping in Berlin, 80 years after the end of the Holocaust,” the statement continued. “This is a show of intent by our three flourishing communities that we are committed to boosting Jewish life in our respective countries, cooperating in the fight against antisemitism, and enhancing bilateral and multilateral relations between our countries and Israel.”
Berlin: The largest representative organisations of European Jewish communities in France, Germany, and the UK have today launched a new ‘JE3‘ alliance. @Le_CRIF @ZentralratJuden pic.twitter.com/hXotcz6RDb
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) May 12, 2025
This new JE3 initiative comes as France, Germany, and the UK, as well as other countries across Europe and around the world, have reported record spikes in antisemitic activity in recent years, largely fueled by a wave of anti-Jewish sentiment following Hamas’s launch of its war against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Last week, the J7 Task Force released its first Annual Report on Antisemitism, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, when Nazi Germany formally surrendered to Allied forces on May 8, marking the end of World War II and the Holocaust.
The report, which echoes findings from recent studies, revealed a dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents between 2021 and 2023. These increases include 11 percent in Australia, 23 percent in Argentina, 75 percent in Germany, 82 percent in the UK, 83 percent in Canada, 185 percent in France, and 227 percent in the US. Those numbers continued to spike to record levels in the aftermath of the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7.
Additionally, the data showed a concerning rise on a per-capita basis, with Germany reporting over 38 incidents per 1,000 Jews, and the UK seeing 13 per 1,000.
The seven communities identified several common trends, including a surge in violent incidents, recurring attacks on Jewish institutions, a rise in online hate speech, and growing fear among Jews, which has led many to conceal their Jewish identity.
The post Jewish Communities in France, Germany, UK Form New ‘JE3’ Alliance Amid Surge in Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Brazilian Jews Rebuke President Lula for ‘Antisemitic Libel’ Condemning Israel’s Fight to Defeat Hamas
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Pool
Jewish leadership in Brazil has accused President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of pushing “antisemitic libel” against Israel during a speech in Moscow on Saturday.
Lula accused Israel of “attacking women and children under the pretext of killing terrorists,” described its war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas as “a genocide,” and claimed the Jewish state struck hospitals which did not contain Hamas members.
The Brazilian Israelite Confederation (CONIB), the country’s leading Jewish organization, denounced Lula for his claims.
“It is regrettable and disturbing that the president of our country continues to promote this antisemitic libel throughout the world,” CONIB President Claudio Lottenberg said in a statement. “Brazil is a country where the Jewish community lives in peace and security, but President Lula, with his antisemitic statements, seems to want to create problems for our community by promoting antisemitism among his supporters, in an irresponsible and destructive attitude.”
Lottenberg added that “Hamas started this terrible war and is hiding behind the civilian population and Israeli hostages to promote its genocidal vision of exterminating Israel and the Jews.”
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists launched the current conflict with their Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths in its military response to try and avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
In February, Lula also received pushback for comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and the war in Gaza to the Holocaust — a comparison described as an example of anti-Jewish hate under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people does not exist at any other historical moment … In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” Lula said at the time.
“Brazil is a country of peace, with a historical message of coexistence and balance. President Lula’s deplorable comparison between Israel’s just war against Hamas with the truly genocidal crimes of Hitler and the Nazis against the Jews during the Holocaust is rejected by the vast majority of the Brazilian population,” Dr. Ariel Gelblung, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Director for Latin America, said in response. “What is worse, he denies the antisemitic nature of his statements, hiding behind Brazil’s IHRA observer status. However, his national administration does not adopt the definition or present plans to become a full member.”
In May 2024, Lula recalled Brazil’s ambassador from Israel, resulting in a persona non grata status according to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
In January, an unnamed Israeli tourist fled Brazil when a court started an investigation into his time as a soldier fighting in Gaza.
“I am embarrassed for Brazil and its government, who surrendered to the pro-Palestinian legal terrorism,” Yuli Edelstein, chair of the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said in response.
According to the World Jewish Congress, 92,000 Jews call Brazil home, which ranks as 10th largest globally and second in Latin America after Argentina. The group says that “Brazilian Jews usually enjoy comfort, security, and wealth in a country known for its amicable coexistence of various ethnicities.”
Brazil saw a 961 percent spike in antisemitic incidents during October 2023 in comparison to the same time in 2022. Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs reported that in 2024 from January through October, complaints of antisemitism rose 70 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
The Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University released a report on 2024 antisemitic incidents globally, drawing from data collected by CONIB which showed 1,788 incidents in Brazil in 2024 compared to 1,410 in 2023 and 432 in 2022.
In January, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released the findings of its newest Global 100 Survey of antisemitic attitudes by country. Researchers found that about a percent of the country’s population — 41.2 million people — expressed “elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes.” These numbers rank Brazil as the 21st least antisemitic country out of 103 and third lowest in the region.
On March 10, the ADL and CONIB announced plans to partner and increase efforts to counter domestic antisemitism.
“With antisemitism and anti-Zionism on the rise worldwide, partnerships like this are key to ensuring that Jewish communities in Latin America and other regions have the tools to protect themselves,” said Marina Rosenberg, the ADL’s senior vice president for International Affairs. “By collaborating with CONIB, we are strengthening the fight against extremism in Brazil and expanding the global reach of ADL in monitoring and combating antisemitism and hatred.”
Lottenberg added that “by joining forces with such a prominent organization, our goal is to strengthen the fight against growing antisemitism in Brazil, promoting the security and well-being of the Brazilian Jewish community.”
The post-Oct. 7, 2023, surge of antisemitism in the South American state inspired the city government of Rio de Janeiro to adopt the IHRA antisemitism definition.
“The IHRA definition has proven to be the most effective tool to identify and counter antisemitism, and we encourage other governmental bodies at all levels, throughout Latin America and worldwide, to follow Rio de Janeiro’s lead and join the distinguished club that has made an impact in the collective effort against antisemitism by taking this vital step,” said Shay Salamon, director of Hispanic outreach for the Combat Antisemitism Movement.
Two Brazilian states — Goiás and São Paulo — adopted the IHRA definition in 2024.
Goiás Governor Ronaldo Caiado said at the signing ceremony that “President Lula’s statements do not represent the people of Brazil. Today we begin to rebuild the respect that he made us lose.”
The post Brazilian Jews Rebuke President Lula for ‘Antisemitic Libel’ Condemning Israel’s Fight to Defeat Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Norwegian Hotel Refuses Israeli Traveler Amid Boycott Against Israel
A demonstration of the group Europe Palestine to demand the boycott of Israel, in Paris, France on May 15, 2022. Photo: Xose Bouzas / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
A Norwegian hotel has refused to accommodate an Israeli traveler, citing a nationwide boycott against the Jewish state launched last week by the country’s powerful trade union, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO).
Upon receiving the request, the hotel — located in the village of Geiranger in western Norway, one of Scandinavia’s top tourist destinations — indicated it would need to consult with the trade union to determine whether hosting the Israeli traveler would be permitted under the new boycott guidelines.
“The Norwegian Labor Organization (LO) will soon enforce a boycott that will affect Israeli tourists and Israeli goods due to the catastrophic situation in Gaza,” read the response to the Israeli traveler’s booking request.
“We need to inform you that our staff is organized in LO unions, and they will not break the boycott. I will need to consult with the employers’ organization as I see this as a force majeure situation,” the hotel told the Israeli traveler.
BREAKING:
Norwegian hotels to boycott Israeli tourists.Source: @StoppNRK
See: https://t.co/0tr55jwvFl pic.twitter.com/Mhy2pICn1n— On Elpeleg
(@onelpeleg) May 12, 2025
According to the hotel management, the organization’s boycott qualifies as a “force majeure” event, an unforeseen circumstance that prevents parties from meeting their contractual obligations and shields them from liability when exceptional situations disrupt normal expectations.
The hotel’s response was shared in a Facebook group, sparking outrage and widespread condemnation among its members.
“As a Jew who has been fighting antisemitism for 40 years, I have never experienced something so shocking. It’s like traveling back in time 85 years to 1940, to the period when Norway sent its Jews to Auschwitz,” one of the group’s members wrote in a comment.
“I am simply in shock – Norway was the last country in Europe to allow Jews to enter, and now it’s closing its doors again,” he continued.
Last week, Norway’s LO trade union voted in favor of a full economic boycott of Israel, while also urging the government to direct the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) to divest from Israeli companies, similar to how it mandated the divestment from Russian companies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The GPFG, also known as the Norwegian Oil Fund, is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Norwegian government and managed by its central bank, created to manage surplus revenue from oil and gas exports, with investments in a diverse array of global assets and companies.
Despite its close ties to the LO union, Norway’s Labour-led government said it would not push for divestment from Israeli companies, arguing that it is best to allow the fund’s ethics watchdog, the Council on Ethics, to operate in accordance with the ethical guidelines approved by parliament.
“We don’t plan to change our strategy,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told Reuters on Friday after the LO vote.
“But I hope Israel is reading that this [the boycott] is an expression of a significant part of public opinion,” the Norwegian leader said.
Based on government guidelines, the GPFG follows an ethical investment strategy that includes avoiding companies involved in human rights violations, environmental harm, or other unethical practices, and has the authority to divest from such companies or sectors when necessary.
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas praised the LO’s decision to boycott “the Zionist occupation and ban trade and investment with its companies,” calling the move “a courageous step that embodies a clear alignment with truth and justice, and advocates for the rights of the Palestinian people.”
On Sunday, the GPFG — which is one of the largest funds in the world — announced that it had divested from Israel’s Paz Oil Company, citing its ownership and operation of infrastructure that supplies fuel to “Israeli settlements in the West Bank.”
“By operating infrastructure for the supply of fuel to the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, Paz is contributing to their perpetuation,” the fund’s Council on Ethics watchdog said in its recommendation to divest. “The settlements have been established in violation of international law, and their perpetuation constitutes an ongoing violation thereof.”
This is the latest move by a European financial entity to sever ties with Israeli companies, amid growing pressure in Norway for the GPFG to fully divest from Israeli businesses following the outbreak of the Gaza war.
Overall, the Council on Ethics reviewed approximately 65 companies in the fund’s holdings across sectors such as energy supply, infrastructure, travel and tourism, and banking, but has not yet disclosed whether it made additional recommendations for divestment.
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