In typical Trump like fashion Bibi Netanyahu echoed his political soulmate leaving office in a blaze of incendiary rhetoric. It has been his trademark persona during his tenure as Israel’s Prime Minister.
The World is a better place today. Netanyahu has been ousted from power. Facing trial for corruption he joins the ranks of leaders who used political office for personal gain and were finally shown the door.
It’s dispiriting that Netanyahu held onto power for 12 years, terrorized Israel’s Palestinian population, and relentlessly engaged in his bellicose warlike activities against neighboring States in the Middle East.
Excerpted from The Daily Beast 6.13.2021
JERUSALEM—Benjamin Netanyahu’s long and boisterous rule came to an end on Sunday with one final broadside against the world.
The embittered ex-prime minister channeled his inner Trump to claim the Israeli election was fraudulent and label his opponents fascists and turncoats, and compare them to the regimes in Iran and North Korea. He lashed out at President Biden, claiming the state of Israel faced an existential threat if its government was not powerful enough to say “no” to the United States.
In fact, the new government was voted into power democratically on Sunday, with a parliamentary vote granting a laser-thin ruling majority to a coalition of opposition parties led by the new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, and new foreign minister Yair Lapid.
Bennett, 49, and Lapid, 57, signed a rotation agreement, with Bennett serving as prime minister for the first two years.
Almost unknown outside of Israel, Bennett, a nationalist hardliner, and the centrist Lapid succeeded where almost a generation of politicians have failed: to replace Netanyahu, 71, whose 12 years in office made him Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and the country’s most dominant modern leader.
Netanyahu did not depart gracefully. He cast aspersions on his rivals and derided the alleged illegitimacy of the new government, declaring its formation “a fraud,” and “possibly the greatest fraud in history.”
In his parting shot in the Knesset, Netanyahu claimed that his ouster could bring about the very destruction of Israel.
He belittled Bennett, who entered politics by serving as Netanyahu’s chief of staff. “Bennett? He doesn’t have the international standing, the ability, or the knowledge. An Israeli prime minister must be able to say ‘no’ to an American president…. An Israeli government that cannot stand up strongly to the international community—it is no surprise they are celebrating in Iran today.”
Netanyahu also made the totally unfounded allegation that Biden would not safeguard Israel, and compared the Iran deal—which was signed by President Obama and wrecked by President Trump—to Americans failing to stop the Holocaust.
“The new American administration asked me to keep our disagreements quiet,” he said, explaining that he replied “No!” to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. “But I told them we wouldn’t do it, and I’ll tell you why. The lessons of history are in front of my eyes. In 1944, at the height of the Holocaust, President Roosevelt refused to bomb the trains and the gas chambers, which could have saved our people.”
Lee's Perspective 