WHEW.
😂 A little backstory before sharing this link. Haaretz used to be the dominant pub in Israel before Netanyahu's rich buddy bankrolled a daily free pub that could promote Likud talking points, so there is NO LOVE LOST for Netanyahu in this institution of a paper, which hosts POVs across the spectrum but definitely skews left of centre.
You could've guessed that, though, from the title of its lead editorial today:
"Passover in Israel: The Ten Plagues of Netanyahu"
@MLClark I hope they find peace.
@MLClark heh! Now *that's* a title with appropriate timing. Thanks for sharing.
Wow! Now I understand why Netanyahu & trump are such a team.
"Passover in Israel: The Ten Plagues of Netanyahu" is an important read .
In our country, there are many protests and criticism coming down hard on why Biden isn't forcing Netanyahu to stop the invasion of Gaza.
The critical factor here is that Netanyahu is running his own invasion to reshape Israel that doesn't care what the rest of his country and the world think.
At first, Biden tried to hug Netanyahu so tightly with allyship, in the hope of being a voice of reason and saving US lives.
But Netanyahu and his Likud Party are Revisionists, a form of Zionism that is highly militant and mission-driven, and his far-right coalition is filled with religious extremists who see escalating war as a fulfillment of prophecy.
At present, Netanyahu is using the threat of expanded regional war *as a tactic* to keep the US on board as an ally.
+
This is why the US recently offered to support the Rafah invasion if Netanyahu would chill out on Iran. It knows that Netanyahu can escalate regional conflict in ways that would require US investment in the long run, to protect Israel from threats its own gov't is exacerbating. The US is therefore stuck making short-term concessions that amount to complicity in atrocity, and the best it can do is try to sanction IDF units & violent settlers.
It's a real quagmire right now.
To be clear:
There's nothing new or shocking in that piece for readers of the publication for the last year, & language like "racists" has been comfortably used by Israelis to talk about some extreme settlers & religionists for a while.
But this was just such a perfect reminder that many Jewish people are entering Passover tomorrow with a VERY complex body of sorrows and suffering.
Hold your fellow human beings in your heart this week, OK?
So many of us are going through terrible ordeals. 🕯️