For those who have yet to grasp it, we have not officially been declared a banana republic. And although the prime minister behaves like Trump's poodle, we are not Puerto Rico, our currency is the shekel, not the dollar, and no outsider has any business interfering in our elections.
Trump would not employ the incompetent bunch known as the Israeli government for even a moment. "You're fired!" he would roar at them at the top of his lungs. So why should we have to put up with them?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US President Donald Trump at the White House
(Photo: Maayan Toaf / GPO)
It is easy to understand why Trump wants his poodle at the head of Israel's government, a man who believes his personal freedom depends on a foreign president intervening in legal proceedings in Israel. Netanyahu is incapable of standing up to him and does exactly as he is told. "Sit," and he sits. "Attack," and he sends the IDF to attack. That may be convenient for Trump, but it is dangerous for us. Israel's prime minister must be capable of standing up to pressure and representing Israel's interests alone, rather than pursuing a personal need to escape the consequences of the law. And as obvious as this should be, it must be said: The Prime Minister's Office should serve the interests of Israel and Israel alone, not busy itself with laundering the reputations of dictators and state sponsors of terrorism. When Netanyahu's office works for Qatar, that is not "complicated." It reeks of treason.
Allow me to quote my father, a courageous Israeli patriot who was never afraid to stand up to a U.S. president, as he demonstrated in his Czechoslovakia speech, who never shirked responsibility and who, most relevant to our discussion, had an exceptional ability to judge character: "The things I saw in Netanyahu when he was prime minister are dangerous. He is anxious and easily pressured, panics and loses his composure. Israel is a special country, and governing it requires sound judgment and nerves of steel. Netanyahu has neither. Someone who runs away from responsibility a week before the budget is submitted is not a responsible person, and I would not trust him. Someone who, before the disengagement, after supporting the plan four times, gets up and runs away from responsibility is incapable of leading a country, certainly not a country like Israel. What is needed here is a calm head."
I have known Gadi Eisenkot for many years, since he served as Arik's military secretary. Gadi is coolheaded. He cannot be pressured or blackmailed. No Qatari agent could ever have leverage over him in a sensitive position. He does not need a pardon from the U.S. president. He is a decent, honest man whose word is his bond. He does not constantly whine that he is being persecuted and treated unfairly, that nobody woke him up, that he did not know, that nobody tugged at his lapel or that the dog ate his homework. Gadi speaks English with an accent I would describe as somewhere between Eilat and the Golani Brigade, and that is a thousand times better than someone who, when all is said and done, can only say one thing in a perfect accent: "Yes, Mr. President."
Gal, Gadi's son, was raised with values rooted in love of his country. When the war broke out, he did not flee to Miami. He went to fight and never returned. It is easy to mistakenly believe that the vulgarity and filth hurled at Gadi by the Qatari agent and the pathetic mouthpieces are of their own making. But they are nothing more than the sewage pipes through which the coward pumps his toxic sludge. Driven by a sick obsession with holding on to his position and power, he has no problem smearing a former IDF chief of staff who served for decades and sacrificed something for his country a million times more precious than his own life.