Israel’s ‘Godfather’ Moment

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be the Michael Corleone of the Middle East. Fans of the “The Godfather” films know that there is no denouement without all family debts settled and enemies eliminated.

The difference is that movie audiences wait in anticipation for the demise of the Corleones’ enemies. Critics of Israel, however, who represent a far more extensive and devoted fanbase, root for terrorists to live another day.

This past week the IDF pulled off two more acts of derring-do that the Western world would have said “don’t.”

On October 7, 2023, a Hamas terrorist used the phone of an Israeli woman who he had just murdered to call his parents. He bragged: “Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews! Mom, your son is a hero!”

His mother was elated. “I wish I were with you.” Jewish mothers react this way when their sons get into medical school. Palestinian mothers, apparently, take a different Hippocratic Oath.

Talk about demented, short-lived visions of heroism. An Israeli airstrike paid him back in full. (Might the IDF have the address of his mother, too?)

Surely this gleeful terrorist knew that given Israel’s “Godfather” ethos, his misguided hubris meant that his days were numbered.

Memo to Israel’s enemies: Celebrate at your peril. Subdue your joy. You’re on notice of the consequences of messing with Jews.

Memo to Israel’s enemies: Celebrate at your peril. Subdue your joy. You’re on notice of the consequences of messing with Jews.

After assassinating the primary leaders of Hamas in both Gaza and Iran (and Hezbollah’s leadership in Lebanon), Israel took to the skies once again and bombed a building in Qatar where the remaining leadership of Hamas had convened—ostensibly to discuss another runaround about ending the war. Six were killed.

Qatar, it must be remembered, not only finances Hamas, but also has feted its leadership in luxury hotels while Gazans are denied safe harbor in tunnels that Qatar paid for and that terrorists occupy. After this week’s airstrike, Qatar angrily denounced the breach of its sovereignty. But Qatar is no innocent, and they are surely no friend of Israel. The Houthis in Yemen are receiving appropriate levels of IDF attention, too.

In true “Godfather” fashion, Netanyahu knows what debts must be settled. Those who either participated or were complicit in the bloody orgy of October 7 must be made dead.

Speaking of movies, the Toronto Film Festival at first refused to screen an Israeli documentary unflattering to Hamas. They laughably claimed they could not showcase the film without Hamas’ permission. When it came to their cowardice and Hamas’ barbarism, nothing, apparently, was left on the cutting room floor.

Meanwhile, at the Venice Film Festival, Israeli actress Gal Gadot refused to attend when 1,500 signatures were collected demanding that she be disinvited. A pro-Palestinian documentary co-produced by notorious Jewish self-haters Joaquin Phoenix and Jonathan Glazer—and the latest gentile entry into the antisemitic jet set, Brad Pitt—received a 24-minute standing ovation.

Simultaneously, an organization, Film Workers for Palestine, collected 4,000 signatures, including usual suspect antisemites Mark Ruffalo, Ava DuVernay, Yorgos Lanthimos, Javier Bardem, and Cynthia Nixon, and newcomer Emma Stone, who all pledged not to work with Israel’s film industry.

The bandwagon of detractors continues to grow while Israel fastidiously attends to its enemies list. Ignoring the outside noise. Realizing that winning hearts and minds is belied by the world’s oldest prejudice. No matter how Israel would have conducted this war, the world would have found fault. The plotline was morally twisted from the outset. Israel was blamed for what happened on October 7. By October 8 there were already chants of a Palestinian genocide and demands for a ceasefire.

The world downplayed October 7 from the jump: “It didn’t happen”; “There were no rapes or torched babies”; “It’s all Israeli propaganda”; “There’s a context to the killings.”

Israel-bashing is reaching a crescendo. The European Broadcasting Association, which produces Eurovision, the annual song contest, is deciding whether to exclude Israel from this year’s competition. Ireland has already threatened it will boycott if an Israeli singer appears. Coldplay’s Chris Martin publicly humiliated two Israeli teenage girls on his stage in London by condescendingly acknowledging that they might actually be human beings.

The Italian soccer coaches’ association is calling to have Israel suspended from FIFA, the entity that governs global soccer. Israeli chess players withdrew from a tournament when Spain banned Israel’s national flag. Spain also tried to ban Israeli cyclists when throngs of pro-Hamas agitators threatened to disrupt the race. The same thing happened to Israeli cyclists in Canada, who were compelled to abbreviate their name from Israel-Premier Tech to IPT.

Dozens of European universities have severed academic affiliations with Israeli counterparts. Israeli doctors are being barred from internships.

The Hind Rajab Foundation takes to social media to reveal the names of IDF soldiers and Israeli students on gap years. Kosher restaurants in Paris, Berlin and New York continue to be vandalized.

With blinders securely affixed, Israel presses on to finish the job. The rogues’ gallery of Palestinian apologists and political opportunists can’t be placated anyway. France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Belgium are set to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

Germany is withholding arms exports to Israel. The Dutch parliament is losing its mind over Gaza. Spain’s prime minister shockingly lamented that his country is without nuclear weapons to launch at Israel. The country that in 1492 mass murdered and expelled its Jews now wants to spearhead another Holocaust.

So much for the collective gasp of Never Again. Hordes of European Islamists frighten the natives and dictate the Jew-hating rhetoric.

Israel is playing a zero-sum game. It is not trying to win a popularity contest. Not when its right to self-defense is purportedly conditioned on the Catch-22 of not killing Palestinians. No matter what precipitated the conflict or how much Gazans deserve payback, Israel’s hands are perpetually tied while Palestinians remain, paradoxically, untouchable.

If you have a problem with Israel’s settling this score, you should have all along denounced Palestinian violence and rejectionism. You should have registered moral disgust over what happened on October 7. You should have shredded those checks written to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Berkeley and Brown.

If you have a problem with Israel’s settling this score, you should have all along denounced Palestinian violence and rejectionism. You should have registered moral disgust over what happened on October 7.

Instead, Emma Stone never said a word about teenage girls gangraped by Hamas. Brad Pitt never bothered to condemn the beheadings. John Cusack did not call for the return of the hostages. Mark Ruffalo was silent on the torching of Israeli babies.

Joaquin Phoenix, Jonathan Glazer and Andrew Garfield are the kind of “Jews” that real Jews can do without.

And as for Chris Martin, must you be reminded that your two children have a Jewish mother? Rest assured, philo-Semites like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger would have welcomed them onto their stage with more decency and respect.