Netanyahu Will Go, but the State Will Die With Him

Carolina Landsmann

Apropos talk about a plea bargain for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in exchange for his retirement from political life, which President Isaac Herzog is working on; apropos the Supreme Court’s attempts to buy time to postpone the “constitutional crisis” (that is, the “storming of the Bastille,” aka the court, by “the people,” which, rather than making do with being the sovereign, also wants to be free of all checks and balances and to “judge the judges”); apropos all of the electoral calculations regarding the number of Knesset seats, the size of the blocs and the enthusiasm over political mergers, which will quickly become an obsession (Gadi Eisenkot will either join the opposition’s joint ticket, or will be nostalgic for the government’s poison machine) in the run-up to a “fateful” election: I’m sorry to be so depressing, but our fate is already behind us. Everything’s already happened.

“L’etat c’est moi,” Netanyahu has implied for almost two decades, with his supporters following suit. And now it is true. The state is him. Ironically, this unification of the man and the state is becoming obvious as the former nears his end (“the end of the Netanyahu era”). In practice, both of them are “dying” before our eyes – Netanyahu the man and the legend of the state’s founding father, Theodor Herzl.

Netanyahu will go, but the state will die with him. That’s because we have to admit that when it comes to dismantling the state, his achievements have been undeniable.

He has managed to destroy everything – everything good, that is. Nothing remains. Absolutely nothing. Our society has been torn apart, the army has disintegrated, the judges are dying of fear, the media has become a reality show, the Knesset has become an insane asylum and the opposition shares Netanyahu’s view of reality (Iran is an existential threat; there’s no solution for the Palestinian problem; only Zionist parties should sit in the cabinet).

The world hates Israel, and antisemitism has returned to its political cradle. It is no longer the “new,” left-wing critical version (which was aimed mainly at Israeli policy, and the faults of Zionism), but the old, right-wing murderous version (which gleefully adopts the rhetoric of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”). The truth is that while we drove ourselves and the world crazy with the Holocaust, while we chanted “never again” ad nauseam, Netanyahu has led the world to the brink of a repeat of history.

People are under the illusion that there’s still a chance – that he and the state are separate things, that we will survive him and that the future will open up again. This hope is what feeds the strategy of “buying time” adopted by the judges in Netanyahu’s trial, by Herzog with regard to Netanyahu’s pardon application, by the Supreme Court in all its decisions on the big issues (conscription, Itamar Ben-Gvir’s tenure as national security minister, a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7, 2023) and by the large community of Netanyahu opponents who are part of the serving elites and, despite their rhetoric and protests, refuse to break the rules of the game.

All of them sustain the state, and therefore, they sustain Netanyahu, because the state is him. What’s the alternative? Dodge the draft and let the country die? Kill the state to get rid of him?

If there’s a war, they run to report for duty. They pay taxes. They obey the law. They join the government when they are called to the flag. They defend it in the foreign media. They defend it at the international court when it is attacked, even if Netanyahu’s supporters were calling them traitors five minutes before and five minutes after (as with former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak).

Herzog will defuse this bomb? What planet is he living on? The bomb has already exploded in our faces 1,000 times. It has amputated our limbs and torn out our hearts. We’re buying time in the hope that it’s possible to remove the tumor and save the body, but it’s already a lost cause. It’s too late.

In the face of the impending end, one question remains: Is there life after death? And that, only God knows. We will have to die to find out. Maybe after the state dies, something new will be born, and we will experience a national reincarnation. But what is certain is that we will not be able to resuscitate the life we had. There is no way back to what used to be. There is no future for the state as it used to be. The state is him. And his end will be its end. He killed it.

Source: HAARETZ

====================================

Filmmakers, Activists, Israelis, Indians Condemn ‘Unlawful’ Ban on ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’

Tearing up the Map

Imperial Decline in the Straits of Hormuz

Keyboard Warriors

Natalia Ginzburg: Our Monstrous Ideas

Biblical Archaeology and the Judeo-Christian legends / The Deconstruction of the Walls of Jericho

Zionism Breaks

The Adoration of Force

Hundreds of prominent Jews and Israelis urge world powers to hold Israel accountable ‘for Gaza atrocities’

The new barbarians