An Open Letter to Israel's Prime Minister

To The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu,

It is very difficult and I am very hesitant in writing this to you now in the middle of a war, while those who love this country are putting their lives on the line and those who hate their country lead protests in favor of surrender and a violent overthrow of our government.    No one in this country, save the handful who are manipulating patriotic Israelis into following them, want harm done to us by surrendering to the moral nihilism of the Davos crowd and the utter cruelty of our  enemies here.   Ehud Barak and those he commands, with financial support from who knows where, can’t be allowed to control our discussion and can’t have any influence on our decisions.  He and his cohort do only harm to Israel and the Jewish people and one can only come to the conclusion that it is because they consider themselves Citizens of Davosland and not citizens of Israel.    

The danger that comes from this cohort is the reason I am writing to you.  I have voted for you numerous times in elections over the years.  Not every election, mind you, I value my own judgement over loyalty to a party or an individual, but you have been better than your opponents most of the time and I have supported you.   Again – not blindly and not exclusively.    You have contributed to the success of Israel in economics and in security.  In spite of the war Israel has a GDP to Debt ratio of less than 61% - meaning we won’t make our children pay for our way of life.  In contrast the US, Canada, Spain France and the UK are over 100%.  You have navigated Israel through tough times and have helped make it one of the more livable Western countries with a high birth rate and high economic growth.  Israel, in spite of the violent and demagogic arguments over the justice system and of course the Simchat Torah, October 7 disaster, is still the 5^th “happiest” country according to the 2024 World Happiness Index.   That is not all because of you but you do get credit for it as Prime Minister for most of the past 15 years.

But along with the praise comes responsibility for the failures too.  For me, I expected from you a Truman-esque “the buck stops here” moment in first days of the war.  That is the job of a leader and was something that you should have done.  But it doesn’t stop there.  As long as we are speaking of President Harry Truman lets remember what he did when necessary – he fired the General Douglas McCarther, arguably the most popular general of the time, for insubordination.  How did you not slam your fist on the desk and demand that the head of Military Intelligence, Aharon Haliva be fired?   How did you not demand that there be a change in the command structure of the IDF in the days after the war started?  I am not talking about replacing the IDF Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi at that point – but of at least some of those under him who were, for lack of a better phrase, AWOL on October 7 ought to have been fired.  How have you not demanded that the names of the recipients of the top secret information stolen by the October 7 spy not be released so we can have confidence that they are not now in places of responsibility?

I am not sure why, but you adopted the Rabin-Barak philosophy that we only need to concentrate on “existential” threats and let the rest take care of itself.  That led to the acceptance of terrorist attacks after the signing of the Oslo accords and then during the second intifada.  It led to the arrogant unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon and Gaza.  The idea that the country can “survive” these moves and attacks meant that they could be dealt with tactically and we shouldn’t let this interfere with our greater goal – whatever that may be.  This same philosophy allowed Hamas to send rockets and mortars over the border on a semi-regular basis.  The people in the south of the country suffered but the response was always to come to some agreement until the next time.   From this came the “Hamas is deterred” pronouncements that were regular fare of the IDF General Staff. 

But the biggest failure was in Tzuk Eitan – the 2014 war against Hamas.  That was the time to destroy Hamas but you, your Defense Minister (and former IDF Chief of Staff) Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon and the then IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz cut the war short after destroying the tunnels crossing over into Israel.   Worse than that was the moral failure of leaving soldiers on the battlefield.   Hadar Goldin, a Lieutenant in the Givati brigade was killed during an Obama-UN cease fire and he was kidnapped into a tunnel.  In spite of intelligence reports at that time that he was being held in a hospital in Rafah and in spite of the IDF regular and special forces being at the gates of the hospital without opposition, Gantz ordered that they stop and not search for him.  You and Ya’alon did not overrule Gantz.   To make matters worse, from the end of that war until October 6 you have never demanded the return of his body along with that of Sgt. Oron Shaul during the numerous cease fire negotiations.  You and the IDF General Staff broke an agreement that every democratic country has with its people – you don’t leave soldiers on the battlefield.   You allowed the IDF to ignore the pleas of the families since Hamas is not existential threat to Israel.  But it was that moral failure too, that led directly to October 7.

You also missed that one thing that you have dedicated your career to – defending Israel from Iran.   You missed the Iran-Hamas connection as did the Mossad.    

You will tell me that these tactics and this strategy came from the defense establishment and you are right.  But you never pounded the table and demanded that this be changed.  You never made it clear to them that the government of Israel and its army have a moral responsibility to the citizens living in the south and to the soldiers you left on the battlefield and that it is the job of the government and the army to serve the people.

You are a capable, experienced and extremely bright man and the time has come for you to concentrate on the war and nothing else – not the coalition and certainly not the next election.  Although Yair Lapid has played politics from the third day of the war (he basically follows the instructions of the US State Department) you started strong with messages of leadership and unity.  You brought the opposition into the government in order to give the people confidence and to present a unified face.  Lapid will pay for his constant bickering and his refusal to join the government.  

However, you lost sight of one part of the war that used to be your expertise – the strategic vision.   You are one of the few Israeli politicians who understand strategy.  The ex-generals may or not be good tacticians but none that I have heard understand their own neighborhood, let alone the global situation.  That was apparent on October 7 and it is clear now.  That was where you excelled. But instead of playing hardball against the West, the Hague, the UN – you were defensive.  Instead of making Hamas and our enemies in the West react to our plans and pronouncements you always reacted to theirs.  You rightly rejected a Palestinian state but never suggested an alternative such as Mordecai Keidar’s Emirate solution.  As for Gaza you correctly rejected the Palestinian Authority as new rulers but never demanded a civilian presence of the wealthier of the Arab countries or another similar alternative.  You did not even demand a temporary military government in areas that the IDF cleared of Hamas.   You never demanded from the IDF that they create “Hamas free zones” – to allow Gazan women and children to be safe – but instead accepted their tactic of withdrawing troops from conquered areas and letting what will, be. 

When it comes to the deteriorating relations with the United States I admit that, in spite of media prognostications, you are not at fault for this.  It was very clear from the beginning that Anthony Blinken was going to use this tragedy not as a reason to destroy Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran but in order to finally force Israel to accept a Palestinian State.   You did well to shoot that down at the start – something that Gantz would never have done.   As for the media and PR – we were never going to win that war but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to respond aggressively to all the lies and it doesn’t mean we can’t produce our own data and fight Hamas every step of the way on that battlefield, too.

It is now time to put the country first and to do what needs to be done for the “day after Bibi”.  You need to stand strongly and confidently before the country and announce elections in the first quarter of 2025 – elections in which you will not run. 

This is urgent for two reasons.

1.       The country needs to be able to judge its leaders and be given the opportunity to pick new leaders.   It would have been wrong to do that in the middle of a war, as you stated – and it is just as wrong to not to do it soon after the war is over.

2.       If you continue and the government falls on terms that are not yours and elections are held soon – Benny Gantz will be Prime Minister.  Although he has said all the right things, we all know that he does not have what it takes to lead the country during these difficult times and we all know that he is just as responsible as you and the other current and ex-generals for the disaster.  The country cannot take the risk of Benny Gantz as PM and you will not beat him this time.  He will form a coalition with Yair Lapid as Foreign Minister.  He will offer the haredim and Shas what they want (and the courts will allow it since it is not you) and the country will suffer. 

There needs to be enough time for the Likud or another center-right party to field a candidate who can win and by taking control of the situation and announcing elections in the first quarter of 2025 there will be enough time for a proper center-right Zionist candidate to rise to the top 

Also, there needs to be conditions on your announcement that you are not running again.

1.       You need immediately to replace Defense Minister Galant and Herzi Halevi, the IDF Chief of Staff.  They have lost the confidence of the soldiers and officers in the field.  Many reservists consider them “cowards” who betray those under them at the first hint of trouble in the media.  They have mismanaged this war and left us in a place  where we can’t seem to have the upper hand in negotiating with Hamas in spite of the fact that we have killed or captured nearly ¾ of their armed terrorists. 

We now have some sort of security zone and control of a road that cuts Gaza in two.   According to best reports we have killed, captured or put out of action 70% of each of the Hamas brigades not in Rafah.  Very nice if you are fighting a regular army but leaving 30% of Hamas terrorist free to roam in the north of Gaza and Khan Yunis is unacceptable.  The idea of the war – and the reason why so many reservists sacrificed their lives and their time was not to prevent the next October 7 but to destroy Hamas in toto. 

Galant must be replaced by someone who has experience but who is not part of the IDF buddy system.  My suggestion is Avigdor Lieberman who can be brought in immediately and can be given the opportunity to appoint a new IDF Chief of Staff.  Lieberman has been an advocate for the destruction of Hamas over the years. 

During his short term as Defense Minister he failed to destroy Hamas but he was up against the defense establishment and did not know the system well enough to fight it.  Moshe Arens had the same problem during his first term as DM.  They won’t be able to pull the wool over his eyes and the leaks that say “the entire defense establishment thinks ….  “  does not hold water anymore.   A new strategy has to be established in Gaza and in the north (which we have not spoken about).   Lieberman seems to be the only one with the independence to take on these challenges.  If there is someone better – then appoint him.  

2.       You need to obtain resignation letters of the entire IDF General Staff, head of the Mossad and the Shaback (GSS) and put them on the desk of the new DM so that he can start to reshape the IDF away from the “small, smart army” that each of the generals seems still to be tied to.   This seems to be an army led by men who do now know what victory looks like.   They send their division commanders in to do the job and then handcuff them when they act as commanders should.    

3.       The Governments Legal Advisor (Yoetzet Mishpatit) must offer her resignation too – which will go into effect when you leave office.  She is a main cause of the breakdown of law and order in the country and she must go.    She is a mediocre legal mind and was brought in so as to make your life miserable.   That “job” will be done when you leave and you owe it to the country and the next PM to rid us of her. 

4.       Basic Law: Defense Minister  - There is too much group-think in the IDF upper echelons and we can’t allow the generals to be the civilian control over the military.  If it happened every once in awhile it would be fine, but we have reached a point where being a general – meaning agreeing with the General Staff on all matters, is a pre-requisite for the job.   There is no real separation between the military and civilian leadership and no fresh thought.   Two of the better Defense Ministers in Israel were civilians – Moshe Arens and Shimon Peres.   We need people who understand security well but who are not part of the security establishment. 

We are all up against a lot.  The West has lost its moral compass and most of its leaders gleefully lecture Israel and military ethics, forgetting how the West got where it is.  Blinken, Cameron, Schumer and the whole lot wanna-be Kissingers or Kants have never faced the moral dilemmas of the simplest solider in the IDF and yet they demand blood when a decision under fire goes wrong.   Shame on them and shame on all Western “leaders” whose only real decisions in life are choosing the right wine to have with dinner.  They are nothings and don’t hold a candle to you.  But you must do this in spite of them.

Mr. Prime Minister – I agree that leaving office now would just create chaos and leave the country struggling.  But the time has come to up your game and to leave the country in better shape than it is now. You can do that by setting a date for elections in 9 months and by replacing those who have lost the confidence of the reservists who are the backbone of the country – not just the army.  And you can do this by telling the country that you are taking responsibility for the past and for the present because “the buck stops here”.  You will be admired for it and it will take the wind out of the sails of and save us from the Israeli citizens of Davosland.

We elected you in the past and you owe this to us now.