T. Belman. Harel thinks Smotrich won’t be appointed Min of Defense because his detractors, including the Defense establishment and Netanyahu, fear that he will solve what they couldn’t.
By Israel Harel, HAARETZ 20.11.22
Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich in August.Credit: David Bachar
Bezalel Smotrich almost certainly won’t be the next defense minister. This isn’t (only) due to American pressure, but also to the vehement opposition from leading media personalities and dozens of retired generals. (MY MONEY IS ON SMOTRICH FOR DEFENSE)
Benjamin Netanyahu, who during his many years as prime minister stood idly by while a Hamas state let entrenched itself in the south and a Hezbollah state did so in the north, is afraid of a talented man who, due to his original thinking and the fact that he isn’t part of the defense establishment, might prove that things can be done differently – that it’s possible to infuse the Israel Defense Forces with a new spirit and turn it from an army of containment into one that, in the next round of fighting, defeats Hamas and prevents Hezbollah from launching tens of thousands of missiles at Israel.
But Netanyahu is also gripped by another, deeper and even more troubling fear. Smotrich’s success in a field where Netanyahu’s own performance has been mediocre could prove that it’s possible to conduct a different defense policy, one in which the terrorist organizations are being deterred, not Israel.
And if so, everyone on the right, including those who voted for Netanyahu’s Likud party, might discover that they have a young leader with a clear ideological spine who, in terms of both credibility and practical abilities, overshadows his predecessor.
Tell me who your enemies are, Smotrich (people who dispute his qualifications on substantive grounds are in a different category), and I’ll tell you who you are. And indeed, the list of your enemies is headed by those who fear that your success would prove they failed when they held senior command or policy-making posts.
The people claiming that Smotrich lacks experience and has no “professional” judgment include those “professionals with many years of experience” who convinced previous Israeli leaders that Yasser Arafat was a partner for peace, that he wasn’t responsible for the second intifada (that is, for the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis in the early 2000s), that the Oslo Accords would put an end to the bloodshed and that Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, would control the Gaza Strip after the 2005 disengagement from Gaza.
And of course, these are also the people who stigmatized anyone who warned that fleeing Gaza would result in Katyusha rockets on Ashkelon as deluded and scared of peace. After the disengagement, they rhapsodized, Gaza will resemble Singapore.
To the list of these experts’ successes we can also add Iran’s acquisition of the capability to enrich uranium to any level it pleases and our capitulation to Hezbollah (which was presented as an accomplishment) in the deal over a maritime border with Lebanon.
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Our subservience to American dictates, including on domestic policies and IDF appointments, is also related to the “security doctrine” promoted by the defense establishment. In the view of its members, “international law,” rather than our natural and historical rights, is what determines the justice of our possession of the land of our forefathers.
Smotrich seeks an alternative security policy, and he has proven both his credibility and his ability to stick to his goals. Because of his objections to including the United Arab List in the government (which was a mistake on his part), Netanyahu was forced to say goodbye to the Prime Minister’s Office and Smotrich himself was left out of the government.
There are very few people like him in our political system, if any. Other countries are also aware of these qualities and have therefore joined the camp of his opponents, warning and even threatening against his appointment.
With Netanyahu heading the government, the Americans brandishing the whip (see, for instance, the FBI investigation into the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh) and the ultra-Orthodox – whose fundamental creed is that it’s “forbidden to regain the Land of Israel by force” and “forbidden to provoke the non-Jews” – as major partners in the governing coalition, Smotrich would have trouble demonstrating these qualities and carrying out his plans.
But if there’s anyone in our political system who could shake up the defense establishment and, as a consequence, also the political establishment, he is the one. Yet for that very reason, as Netanyahu once said in a different context, “it never happened and will never happen.”
Bibi’s priority is clearly the anti-Iran alliance and continuing to become the economic, diplomatic, military, and cross-cultural, hegemon in the region and as a counterweight to the EU, Biden, and UN etc. and feels the rest can wait, except for small steps.
But unless the PA’s illegal EU funded attempts to change the facts on the ground in Area C are stopped, it clearly cannot.
Great article. We need Smotrich and Gvir in the same way that the US needed Trump in 2016 (and could use him again). The US was in a slump then with Obumbler who like Lapid (Obama light) wanted to destroy America by dividing it domestically (Blacks vs Whites), while Lapid wants to divide Israel (religious vs secular). Trump was a bull in a china store. Israel needs leaders like that now more than ever.
This was in Haaretz? Do they hate Bibi so much they’ll even publish an article by and for someone very much to his right? Is this Bibi Derangement Syndrome? Or perhaps rather the more cumbersome, Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome, since BDS is already taken? 😀