’New York Times’ finally tells its readers: Netanyahu is dangerous
▻http://mondoweiss.net/2016/05/finally-netanyahu-dangerous
Yesterday the New York Times ran a great piece of journalism on the political crisis in Israel. We have long complained on this site that the Times is hiding Israel’s extremist intolerant face from its readers. Ronen Bergman’s piece went against that pattern entirely. Here are some of the truths that Bergman dared to tell:
— Israeli military leaders “detest” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, because he sought “belligerent solutions” to problems and is motivated not by the country’s interest but by “religion, ideology,” and his own political ambitions.
— Netanyahu launched one war these leaders opposed — the 2014 slaughter in Gaza that killed 500 children — and had a “plan” to launch another one, an attack on Iran six years ago, that was “illegal,” because he would have circumvented his own cabinet. “The military and intelligence leaders believed that the prime minister’s plan to attack Iran’s nuclear installations was politically motivated by electoral considerations and would embroil Israel in a superfluous war.”
— The man Netanyahu has lately installed as Defense Minister — Avigdor Lieberman — is “an impulsive and reckless extremist… known for ruthlessly quashing people who hold opposing views.” Lieberman has threatened to blow up the Aswan Dam.
— There could be a military coup in Israel, if Lieberman acts out. “[T]he possibility of a military coup has been raised — but only with a smile,” Bergman reports from his conversations with military leaders. “It remains unlikely.”
The shocking picture Ronen Bergman, a military and intelligence correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, gives Americans is of a country that sounds a lot more like a third world dictatorship than the only democracy in the middle east. The country’s military leaders think Netanyahu pursues “dangerous, aggressive policies.” Anyone who’s ever had the misfortune of dealing with the man wants nothing to do with him. We readers can’t tell if Netanyahu is a crazy dictator or a tribal ideologue or a man of overweening ambition, but we know that Israeli experts say they can’t trust him.
Israel’s Army Goes to War With Its Politicians - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/opinion/sunday/israels-army-goes-to-war-with-its-politicians.html
TEL AVIV — IN most countries, the political class supervises the defense establishment and restrains its leaders from violating human rights or pursuing dangerous, aggressive policies. In Israel, the opposite is happening. Here, politicians blatantly trample the state’s values and laws and seek belligerent solutions, while the chiefs of the Israel Defense Forces and the heads of the intelligence agencies try to calm and restrain them.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer last week of the post of defense minister to Avigdor Lieberman, a pugnacious ultranationalist politician, is the latest act in the war between Mr. Netanyahu and the military and intelligence leaders, a conflict that has no end in sight but could further erode the rule of law and human rights, or lead to a dangerous, superfluous military campaign.
The prime minister sees the defense establishment as a competitor to his authority and an opponent of his goals. Putting Mr. Lieberman, an impulsive and reckless extremist, in charge of the military is a clear signal that the generals’ and the intelligence chiefs’ opposition will no longer be tolerated. Mr. Lieberman is known for ruthlessly quashing people who hold opposing views.