Stop the Bibi bashing and focus on the issues, not the man - opinion

To set the record straight, I have never voted for Benjamin Netanyahu or his party, and doubt that I ever will. But he is the prime minister, and I must respect the office he holds. To do otherwise is a blight on democracy.

People who truly believe in democracy must accept the results of an election. They can voice their protests against the policies of the administration, but they should respect the nation’s leaders.

An attack on the leaders contributes to paving the path to anarchy.

I don’t have a clue how many of the stories about Netanyahu are true or false, but I do know that the more he is attacked by Israelis, the more ammunition is given to Israel’s enemies.

Personally, I think he made a mistake in holding off a state commission of inquiry into what led to the horrific events of October 7. Whether he is considered responsible or not is less important than learning where Israel erred, and how not to repeat the same error, which is commonly referred to in Hebrew as the conceptzia.

They’re blaming Netanyahu, they’re blaming Gadi Eisenkot, they’re blaming Benny Gantz, and a whole bunch of others who were part of the decision making process at security meetings over the years.

October 7 didn’t just happen out of the blue. It was a meticulously planned operation. What’’s important is how it developed below the radar of Israel’s intelligence network, not what time Bibi got out of bed.

How is it that Mossad was able to score points in Iran, but missed the train in Gaza?

It’s not as if there were no warning signs. There were, and they were reported – and they were ignored.

Why?

Were there senior officers who objected to female spotters, and thought they should be concentrating on their domestic skills instead of serving in the army?

Or did they simply think that the young women were panicking because they belonged to the so-called weaker sex, and simply treated their warnings as false alarms?

Every possible scenario must be explored, and any commission of inquiry should include mystery writers and film makers whose creative minds will come up with all kinds of possibilities that may not occur to military personnel.

People change as they get older, and Bibi has probably changed a lot since he was a heroic young soldier under the command of Ehud Barak, and the two rescued hostages from a Sabena plane that was hijacked in flight by Palestinian terrorists, as it traveled from Vienna to Tel Aviv. That was more than half a century ago. Even though I totally disagree with Netanyahu politically, I have every confidence that he is no less a patriot today than he was then – though these days, he’s a lot more cautious.

But Barak, whose voice is frequently heard in anti-Bibi circles, is not cautious. It is perfectly legitimate for Barak, a product and former leader of the Left, to challenge policies set by Bibi, a product and current leader of the Right. But Barak should not be attacking Bibi’s character, especially when giving interviews to foreign media.

To do so encourages further character assassination, such as that displayed in the AI-generated judicial reform campaign video released by Bezalel Smotrich, in which he showed Chief Justice Isaac Amit and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara being arrested by police and dragged through the streets. This was so outrageously below the belt that even people on the Right who support judicial reform were outraged.

While I understand what it means to bereaved families to have Bibi either admit to being accountable or having a commission of inquiry decide that he’s accountable, it doesn’t really serve any purpose. It doesn’t bring back the dead. It doesn’t heal the wounded. It doesn’t stop the grief and the mourning.

All it does is remove him from office and provide some temporary satisfaction for people who want to see him suffer as they have suffered.

Then again, it’s a different kind of suffering.

Netanyahu has been trying to make amends in recent weeks, but that may be because of the elections, or simply because he’s had more time to think about the situation and to display a more humane side of his personality.

As there is no likelihood of the establishment of a commission of inquiry before the elections, let us at least look at the issues on which the coalition and the opposition agree and make that the foundation of a temporary truce that could lead to greater solidarity in the future. There will still be disputes, but there are disputes within political parties, not just between opposing parties. However, disputes do not need to be violent or disrespectful.

The idea is for each side to understand where the other is coming from and where it hopes to go.

There are people on both sides who do dialogue with each other, just as there are Israelis and Palestinians who are not only neighbors but friends with different opinions.

We need to accept that others do not have to think as we do. The marketplace of different ideas can lead to many great things.

While we continue our internal squabbles, the enemy perceives us as weak. This was among the many theories of what prompted the Hamas attack. Israel’s national unity was crumbling from within – a factor that may have indicated the time was ripe for an external assault.

We dare not make that mistake again. Avoiding it starts with new rules to the game. Be critical of unjust policies, but don’t attack the leader. In other words, stop the Bibi bashing and focus on the issues, not the man.