Netanyahu’s Waning Legacy

Twenty six years ago, I was on the aircraft carrying then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin back from Washington to Israel. The mood in our modest version of Air Force One was euphoric. On the South Lawn of the White House, Rabin had just signed a peace treaty with Jordan, an enemy country whose border with Israel was drenched with blood shed over years of conflict.

I doubt that the plane carrying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain ceremony had the same festive atmosphere. Presumably, Netanyahu has congratulated himself on this great success — even though Israel had never really been at war with the two Gulf states. How different that ceremony in 1994 was from last week’s event: peace with Jordan was achieved through direct and secret negotiations between the parties, with the Americans arriving at the last moment for the photo opportunity. The Abraham Accords, by contrast, were fully orchestrated by Jared Kushner, which some say he did to help re-elect his father-in-law.

Netanyahu, however, can easily dismiss these differences. For years, he has attempted to carve out his legacy. Netanyahu started out as the guru of anti-terrorism, but as prime minister, he acted precisely against his own teachings. In 2011, for example, he released 1,000 terrorists from Israeli jails, in exchange for the one Israeli soldier held by Hamas, Gilad Shalit — a deal that Ehud Olmert, the preceding prime minister, called “a crime.”

Or consider his campaign against nuclear Iran. Netanyahu staged himself as a cavalier fighting almost single-handedly against the evil regime, boasting that he was the one who had pulled the United States out of the deal. But based on a recent report by the Institute of National Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv, one wonders whether Israel is in a better situation now — when there is no inspection whatsoever on Iran’s nuclear program — than we were in the time of the Iran Deal, imperfect as it was. The jury is still out on his success in this matter.

It’s not too late for Netanyahu to save his legacy.

When the UAE and Bahrain deal emerged, it seemed like a perfect opportunity for Netanyahu to try and make it his legacy. Why, then, does his victory seem so gloomy?

The reason is COVID-19.

The virus has quickly become Netanyahu’s nemesis. At the beginning of the outbreak, Netanyahu dismissed it as just another flu. When he realized it wasn’t, he acted quickly and imposed a full lockdown. Elated by his success, Netanyahu boasted that world leaders were calling him and asking how he had managed to crush the pandemic. But then he called off the lockdown prematurely and sent Israelis to “have fun.” This proved to be a fatal mistake.

In the five months that have passed since that decision, Netanyahu, believing he had once again single-handedly saved Israel, has insisted on being the only Coronavirus Czar. Unwilling to share credit with then-Defense Minister Naftali Bennett and today with Benny Gantz, Netanyahu refused to hand over crisis management to the only organization capable of doing it — the Israeli Defense Forces. Instead, he presided over a chaotic hybrid of fighting politicians and experts, surrendered to pressures of Ultra-Orthodox politicians and mayors, threw money on the left and right, on rich and poor indiscriminately, mortgaging the future of our children, and returned from Washington only to impose another lockdown.

If that wasn’t enough, Netanyahu also is facing an impending corruption trial, which, like in the case of Richard Nixon, might mar his legacy forever.

Just before he passed away in 2018, Netanyahu’s lawyer, Jacob Weinroth, advised the prime minister to ask for a plea bargain. But Netanyahu refused. Many Israelis now believe that everything Netanyahu is doing — related to diplomacy, security, or COVID-19 — is only meant to save him from trial, even at the cost of curbing Israeli democracy. Before COVID-19, Netanyahu had already shattered public trust in Israeli institutions. He denigrated the law enforcement agencies by attacking the police, then the Attorney General, and finally the legal system, blaming them of conspiring together to topple a duly-elected prime minister by sinister measures. With three out of every four Israelis not trusting Netanyahu’s management of the crisis, it’s no wonder that leading commentators have blamed him for imposing the lockdown to stop the ongoing outdoor demonstrations against him.

It’s not too late for Netanyahu to save his legacy. Although a plea bargain is probably off the table, Netanyahu should take this Yom Kippur to have a heshbon nefesh, (accounting of the soul) and perhaps consider stepping down and fighting for his innocence in court —before he tarnishes his name even further. By doing so, he might salvage some of his reputation, and perhaps even leave office with the legacy of a peacemaker.

Uri Dromi is director general of the Mishkenot Sha’ananim conference center in Jerusalem. He was the spokesman of the Rabin and Peres governments (1992-96) and was the chief education officer of the Israeli Air Force and the editor-in-chief of the IAF Magazine and the IDF Publishing House.