The only man at the Knesset
PM Netanyahu preoccupied with proving to others that he’s a strong figure
While speaking at the Knesset last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his audience about a note sent to him by another politician (he later revealed it was Haim Ramon.) The note was sent after one of the votes on changing Israel’s election process, and Ramon wrote to Bibi: “You are the only man at the Knesset.” Netanyahu fondly remembered the compliment.
When I heard this, I thought about the 11 other people who served as Israel’s prime minister since the State’s establishment. How many of them would publically boast of such compliment? Ben-Gurion? Begin? Shamir? Eshkol? Sharon? I don’t think so.
The only prime minister who was nicknamed “the only man in the government” was Golda Meir, and she despised the nickname with all her heart, for all the right reasons.
Our prime minister has a problem on this front, and it has accompanied him throughout his political career. It’s important for him that we know he is a strong man. This was also his election campaign slogan in the past: The strong man. Yet truly strong people are not preoccupied with proving to others that they’re strong. Their character speaks for itself. Their actions speak for themselves. Yet Netanyahu needs the approval of others.
Netanyahu’s rivals say he lacks credibility. Yet it seems to me this charge misses the essence. He is far from being the scoundrel being portrayed by the imaginations of satire writers. His tendency to say one thing and then the opposite or to point to one direction and then do the opposite does not stem from some dark conspiracy. It partly stems from pressures, domestic or external, real or imaginary, and partly from a mental difficulty in adopting one view and clinging to it.
Last Wednesday, PM Netanyahu delivered his speech at the Herzliya Conference. In the past, PM Sharon made use of this platform in order to deliver important speeches that outlined a future direction. This was also the expectation from Netanyahu. Yet he made do with some tired clichés detached from reality and from the burning issues on the agenda.
Netanyahu is present, but he is in fact on the run. The post of prime minister is similar to a walk in the rain in his view: The most important thing is not to get wet.
Stepping into the vacuum
Other people step into this vacuum. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman allows himself to run wild because he knows there is no prime minister above him. He presents himself as the first foreign minister with national pride, who doesn’t curry favor with the world. As if past foreign ministers such as Golda Meir, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon, and Benjamin Netanyahu were all about currying favor with the world. As if only Lieberman knows what national pride means.
Lieberman’s pride parade is no more than a combination of recklessness and ignorance. Yet he knows Netanyahu very well.
They say that Netanyahu brings his weakness from home. I’m not sure that’s true. In my view, there is no issue with a prime minister’s wife who influences her husband. This is the way of the world. The problem only starts when the husband represses, denies, and hides this reality.
One thing is certain: The way Netanyahu preaches to the media for occasionally reporting issues pertaining to his family affairs is replete with hypocrisy. In Berlin, Netanyahu delivered an impassioned speech before the German government and the Israeli people against media coverage of his family. Direct the fire to me, he said while pointing at his chest. Leave my wife and children alone.
However, when it’s convenient for the Netanyahus, they showcase both the wife and the children. Last week it happened at the bible quiz which Netanyahu’s son won. In other weeks it happened through flattering gossip items handed over to the media.
On this front, Netanyahu’s conduct is similar to that of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who aggressively markets her family to the public yet protests that her privacy is being compromised when someone publishes unflattering information about her husband or other family members.
Anyone who finds himself or herself in the gossip industry knows this: It’s very easy and tempting to enter this swamp. Yet it’s hard to get out. Even when you think you’re the only man at the Knesset.
