I love this article article by the Washington Post about the likelihood of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel losing to his Labor Party rivals. It reminds me of the old joke about the CEO. When she goes into his office for the 1st time she finds three envelopes and a note from the previous CEO that reads, “open these envelopes in order when you run into trouble.” And so the first time she runs into trouble, she opens the first envelope and finds a note that reads, “blame your predecessor”. And she does so and it works. The next time she has problems, the note inside the second envelope reads, “reorganize”, which she does. And the third time she runs into trouble, she opens the third envelope to find a note that reads, “write out three envelopes”. Surely Bibi is on his third envelope. We will see if he opens it tomorrow.
Hawks in Israel are blaming external forces for Mr. Netanyahu’s downfall. Could it be that Bibi had something to do with it by alienating the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, by playing into domestic politics in America and potentially making support for Israel a partisan- rather than bipartisan – issue? In other words, this hawk may have harmed his own country’s through his undermining of support for his country.
The same could be said about Senator Cotton and the 46 senators who sent a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei. Just because they might want to rely on force doesn’t mean it is the right way to protect Americans.