On a battle for survival – Amos Harel in Haaretz:
‘Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise visit to Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the week has opened up a new affair: the Prime Minister’s Office forbidding his military secretary, Brig. Gen. Avi Bluth, to report to his superiors in the Israel Defense Forces about the trip while it was happening. Netanyahu is continuing to chalk up diplomatic achievements, but along the way he is ignoring most of the accepted rules of the game relating to the defense establishment. Netanyahu has been acting of late as someone who believes with all his heart that “L’état, c’est moi.”’
(…)
‘The meeting in the Saudi city of Neom with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was held after a series of clandestine meetings between the sides, and was meant to bolster the anti-Iranian alliance in the region, which has grown closer during U.S. President Donald Trump's tenure. But internal political considerations seem to have been behind the publication of the report in the Israeli media. This time, the military censor was not asked to prevent the publication, as is customary in such cases. In addition, a tweet was posted by one of Netanyahu’s advisers – which may have been quickly corrected, but was enough to draw the attention of all Israeli media.
With the publication of the news on the meeting, Netanyahuwanted to achieve three goals: To reinforce his image as a super-statesman, capable of weaving secret and surprising moves with the Americans and Saudis; to yet again embarrass his coalition partners from Kahol Lavan, who once again learned about the secret trip from the press; and to quickly change the media agenda by removing from the headlines the commission of inquiry set up by Defense Minister Benny Gantz into the so-called submarine affair.’
(…)
‘Netanyahu is now at the stage where all means are justified in the battle for his survival – and it seems he doesn’t care about anyone else.’
(…)
‘The latest incident just proves what Netanyahu’s rivals have said the entire time: As experienced and skilled as he may be, there is no way to continue to run a country as complicated as Israel, and stick to business, and keep your cool, all while when you are on trial in three serious corruption cases and spending a large part of your time trying to come up with political tricks to save you from your fate.’
Read the article here.
Netanyahu was at the stage where all means are justified in the battle for his survival a long long time ago already.
Note also that this article about the not very secret meeting between the de facto ruler of Saudi-Arabia and Netanyahu is focused on the maneuvers of Netanyahu to outsmart his rivals in Israel.
The meeting itself was hardly surprising.
The reputation of politicians in general is not very good, it’s part of the profession I’m afraid, but people like Netanyahu turn this profession into an endless game: how to save yourself from your fate.