My Proposed Interview With Bibi
Twelve questions I would like to ask Prime Minister Netanyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has steadfastly refused to appoint a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7th, claiming that - since its head would be chosen by the Supreme Court President - it would be biased against him. (He has also argued that it would be a distraction from the war effort.) Reports emerged yesterday that he may finally create a government-appointed commission of inquiry; but unlike a state commission, it would be composed of five members whom the prime minister would choose. Netanyahu apparently assumes that the Israeli public will accept that a commission he appoints will be impartial, whereas one appointed by the Supreme Court President will inevitably be partisan - or perhaps he simply doesn’t care what the public thinks. If these reports are true, I hope that his supporters as well as his detractors call him out on his blatant hypocrisy.
That news inspired me to think of various questions I would like to pose to the prime minister. Here are some that immediately come to mind.
You have consistently said that the goal of the war is total victory over Hamas; in your words, “When people talk about ‘the day after,’ let’s be clear about one thing. It’s the day after all of Hamas is destroyed. Not half of Hamas, not 3/4 of Hamas; all of Hamas.” What does that mean in practice? Are you saying that every last Hamas fighter must be killed or disarmed or Israel will continue fighting?
How would you reassure wary Israelis that the quest for total victory against Hamas will not turn into a quagmire, where Israel makes terrible sacrifices for years without a viable endgame?
Because most analysts assume that Hamas operatives have orders to kill any living hostages if Israeli forces come close to rescuing them, doesn’t the demand to destroy “all of Hamas” mean the inevitable death of the remaining living hostages?
In line with the previous question, are there any compromises you would make in order to release the hostages, assuming that doing so requires ending the war short of your stated goal?
You said, “They’ll soon go into… Hamas’s last bastion. They will do so, as they have done up to now, by providing the civilian population safe passage to safe zones, and they’ll do so in spite of Hamas’s evil attempts to stop the civilians from leaving at gunpoint. Total victory over Hamas will not take years. It will take months. Victory is within reach.” This statement is from February 7, 2024 - 19 months ago. Please explain why your prediction of a speedy victory was proven wrong. Did something change on the ground, or were you mistaken in your initial assumptions? How so?
While the Israeli public largely accepts that the government should not reveal information that would be beneficial to the enemy, it also would like better clarity regarding how long the war will continue. Speaking realistically, when will the war against Hamas end?
You claim that the Palestinian Authority will have no role in the future governance of Gaza. There have been suggestions that Arab countries like the UAE and others could be involved in the governance of Gaza instead - but those same countries continue to insist that they will not do so without PA involvement. What, then, is the plan for governing Gaza when the war is finally over? What steps have been taken to create a new governing body that will be acceptable to Israel? Is it fair to say that if no such steps have been taken, the IDF will effectively act as Gaza’s military government for the foreseeable future?
Yuli Edelstein prepared a compromise bill that called for limited conscription of the ultra-Orthodox population into the military. When the ultra-Orthodox parties threatened to leave the government, your party voted 29-4 to dismiss Edelstein as chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and nominated Boaz Bismuth to replace him - presumably as he would offer more concessions to UTJ and Shas. Do you believe that Chareidi yeshiva students should generally receive military exemptions? How would you explain your position to the exhausted members of the rest of the Israeli public who are risking their lives and livelihoods as the war continues into its third year? Why, in other words, do you believe that sweeping exemptions should be given to ultra-Orthodox men when IDF commanders have repeatedly asserted the army needs more soldiers?
You have not taken responsibility for the events on October 7th, or the events leading up to October 7th, or the strategic assumptions upon which Israel’s lack of preparedness for October 7th were predicated. Given that you were the prime minister for 12 1/2 of the 14 years before October 7th, please explain to the Israeli public why you shouldn’t be held responsible for any of the mistakes that were made.
Who, in your opinion, is to blame for the failures of October 7th and the conceptzia that led to it - and why, as prime minister, did you allow those people to work under you for so long without working to replace them with more competent public servants? Doesn’t that also suggest a failure of leadership?
Israel’s perception internationally has seldom if ever been worse than it is now. How do you intend to combat that? Why does your strategy apparently not include hiring an official English language spokesperson for the government?
The Twenty Second Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a person from being elected president more than twice, and prohibits an individual from serving as president for more than ten years. You have served as prime minister for eighteen years total, including fifteen of the past sixteen years. Why do you think that term limits, which were deemed necessary in the United States to avoid the president becoming too powerful, are unnecessary in Israel?
I agree with most of this, although the last question is very much from a perspective of taking the USA as a political norm to which other countries must conform. There are other Western countries with no term limits e.g. here in the UK.
I don’t see why people are so down on the “conceptsia.” While it was mostly wrong, the issue was not the intelligence assessment. It was having a deployment that relied on that assessment being right. Also, Israeli discourse is way too focused on individual responsibility. That’s not how institutions work. Replacing individuals won’t do anything, there needs to be an understanding of what organizational structures and incentives created the issue.