JERUSALEM — For Benjamin Netanyahu, 2021 is an inconsolable nightmare.
In June, after four failed attempts to form a governing coalition, and after 15 years as prime minister of Israel, the past 12 years were uninterrupted, The 72-year-old Netanyahu has finally been sacked by a patchwork of former allies to which he unfoundedly claimed to have committed “biggest election fraud… in the history of any democracy. ”
Violence against”election stolen“On the day the government leads Naftali Bennett was inaugurated, a cheerful Nixonian Netanyahu shouted, in English, “We will be back! ”
So far, it hasn’t gone well. Netanyahu has faced a relentless series of setbacks in almost every area, leaving His legacy is badly dented and his political future is uncertain. On the political side, Alon Pinkas, a columnist for the liberal daily said Haaretz and a former adviser to prime ministers other than Netanyahu, “The year 2021 means the End. It’s over.”
Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s longest serving prime minister and Israel’s most dominant political figure since David Ben-Gurion, the founder of the state. He was a man once seen by his compatriots – and many around the world – as the personification of Israel. However, he left office under unusual circumstances, was tried for corruption, supported mainly by fringe political riffraff, his reputation was in tatters.
“I haven’t talked to him since. Let it go.”
– Former President Donald Trump
With his ongoing corruption trial expected to dominate the headlines until 2022, Israel is still facing Netanyahu’s claim and its consequences for the country. . Just as Nixon’s displeasure has contaminated the White House in the eyes of Americans for decades, Bibi’s lack of grace will challenge the Israeli public, which has already lost faith in the country’s governing institutions.
The year got off to a bad start for Netanyahu, with the death, in January, of his top supporter, Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson, and the sudden departure of his top international ally, another Adelson defender, Donald Trump, after the uprising of January 6th. The year 2021 then takes a turn for the worse as the new Biden administration embarks on new negotiations with Iran, which Israel considers the biggest military threat to its security. .
Leading Israel’s response, Prime Minister Bennett delicately noted that his government “inherits a situation where Iran is at the most advanced point ever in the bombing race.” . But Israel’s former security chiefs flatly accused Netanyahu ignore the interests of the country for a personally beneficial public friendship with Trump.
Former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon criticized Netanyahu for “encouraged Trump to leave the Iran deal“, calling the withdrawal “a historic mistake” and attributing the current Israeli government’s reluctance to explicitly blame Netanyahu for the disaster for “politics”. Haaretz, to be “most important mistake“In the century.
Ephraim Halevy, a former Mossad director, accused Netanyahu betray Israel’s national security vis-à-vis Jordan. Nadav Argaman, The head of Israel’s internal security agency, said in his farewell that Netanyahu jeopardizes national security by strengthen the Islamic militia Hamas at the expense of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.
Even the affection for Trump, which Netanyahu risked so much, ended badly. In an interview for a recently published book, Trump bitterly clever that Netanyahu congratulated Biden after winning the election, saying, “I haven’t talked to him since. Fuck him. ”
Netanyahu’s reaction to his diminished circumstances ranges from repeating extravagant and unfounded plots against him to the assertion that Israel, under Bennett, has become a “Fascist” country.
In one strange english clipNetanyahu alleges that the bills presented by the current Israeli government are equivalent to the laws of Iran and North Korea. Benny Begin, an MP and a former member of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party, described the video as the former prime minister’s “Russia, if you’re listening…” moment, noting that “this is the first time a Opposition leaders demanded that foreign powers intervene in the Israeli legislative process. ”
In the other in an extreme state the post, Netanyahu, who in his final hours in office secured unprecedented secret service details to his wife and adult sons, made several imaginary threats against safety from foreign “hostile nations” and begged the Israelites, “Do not give up the safety of my wife and children! ”
Likud is in turmoil, and together with some old friends challenge his leadershipMuch of Netanyahu’s public support has been attributed to thugs such as Racial ruler Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is is being investigated for drawing a gun at an unarmed garage employee who asked him to move his car from an illegal location.
Netanyahu is devoting himself to purging any party members he doubts allegiance. At the end of December, he posted a list of 7,000 non-gratae names of people who have been removed from the party list. In response to another Nixonian misconduct, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit recently ruled that Netanyahu must pay back nearly $1 million He illegally received, while in office, to cover his legal expenses, from two American businessmen. Separately, the Netanyahu family were ordered to give up 21 “gifts” they taken upon leaving official residence, considered government property.
Netanyahu’s 30-year-old son Yair, a right-wing internet troll whose influence over his father remains a source of public attraction, fined $631 for not appearing in court faces defamation charges from a young woman he claims, for unknown reasons, have had an affair with one of his father’s political opponents.
On the second to last day of 2021, the State of Israel formally asks Mr. Netanyahu to return the 30 gifts he received at the end of his term. His lawyers asserted “some are broken and some are lost. ”
“Only the mafia shreds all documents!”
– Or-ly Barlev, independent journalist
While the Netanyahu family has long covered the news — in 2019, Sara Netanyahu, the wife of the former prime minister, convicted of abusing public funds, the corruption trial also led to the malicious plots of the once powerful and invulnerable Netanyahu inside.
The most prominent example is Nir Hefetz, a man who has spent his entire career operating in the shadows.. He is often referred to as “”former spokesman for former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “But in reality, acting for years as the ruthless fixer of the Netanyahu family, on behalf of the man Israelis call “Mr. Guard.”
Hefetz was largely unknown to the Israeli public until his stunning arrest in 2018, at the height of the police investigation into then Prime Minister Netanyahu, which resulted in an unprecedented indictment. on fraud, bribery and breach of trust. Today, he is a key witness to the prosecution in the trial of Benjamin Netanyahu and has astounded Israelis with a string of startling – and devastating – revelations about Bibi, as Netanyahu is known to all.
His testimony, which began in November, describes a brooding, distracting Netanyahu ignore security risks while consumed with perceived enemies in the Israeli media and business. Under cross-examination by Netanyahu’s defense attorney, Hefetz said he left his powerful job in September 2017 “because I believe he is no longer fit to bring charges.” security decisions for the State of Israel”, adding, “I still believe that today . ”
Netanyahu’s former consignee is referring to the crisis that erupted after a 2017 terrorist attack in which two Israeli policemen were killed in the perimeter of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem’s Old City . The prime minister’s decision to install metal detectors around the Muslim holy site sparked massive street protests that, according to Hefetz, could have sparked a “security incident in which thousands of people may be dead.”
In court earlier this month, Hefetz described Netanyahu as a vigilante, compulsive shredder who destroys every scrap of paper at hand, “Even the shopping list. ”
“Only the mafia shreds all documents! ” boomed Or-ly Barlev, an independent journalist who covers every trial live. “Crash Netanyahu all documents and we have to be calm about it because it’s ‘habit’?! ”
Hefetz concluded his testimony on Wednesday. Next up: Ari Harow, Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, who is expected to reveal even more secrets from Netanyahu’s once formidable brain trust.
