There is an old saying (and I have not been able to find the original source for it), if a politicians lips are moving he is lying.
The TIME analysis of what Netanyahu said in the interview and what was "inaccurate" can be found here (and the original interview can be found here), but I find this less interesting. Most Israelis (everyone but the "Bibists") already know this.
What I found more interesting from the original interview, even if it was perhaps the least important part, was when TIME asked about apologizing for what happened, Bibi said:
“Apologize?” he asks back. “Of course, of course. I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened. And you always look back and you say, Could we have done things that would have prevented it?”
To TIME's question he uttered a blithe apology. In Israel, to the Israelis, despite the many calls for it, Netanyahu has refused to say even something as short and blithe as that. Not in Hebrew, and not in English either. He said it to TIME, but he wont say it to Israel. That's what I find interesting, even if unimportant - unimportant being the apology for sleeping on the job (literally, as he says nobody woke him with the news of what was happening on October 7, though how a Prime Minister in Israel can possibly still be asleep at 6:30am I dont know even on the best of days). An apology might make some people feel better but I dont know that people want an apology from him rather than a statement accepting responsibility for his failures. And the attack itself is possibly the least of it. The government was in chaos and failed to respond for a very long time and even then it took a much longer time before they really took control of the situation - not the fighting but handling the civilian crisis of displaced people and supplying the reservists with what they needed.
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There's a difference between an apology and being sorry something happened
ReplyDeletebsorot tovot
I’ve never seen a politician apologize for anything directly. That being said, as much good as he’s done for modernizing Israel’s economy, Abraham accords and such, he’s trying to avoid the (imho) horrible end he’s going to have. Because 10/7 is what he’s going to be remembered for/held accountable for. More than in the ICC, if whoever comes to power in Israel decides to investigate and hold “the captain of the ship” responsible, he may end up in an Israeli jail. I personally do not wish that on him, but I also feel that he will try again to be a politician and we will end up with Hamas or Hamas lite still in Gaza. The difference between Hamas and Hamas Lite if you were wondering is frequency and severity of terror attacks. And sometimes the “Lite” is worse because since Jewish blood is so cheap, the world will keep on allowing it. And if he does that after all of the lives the IDF has sacrificed, he will go down as the worst PM in history. -LFD
ReplyDeleteThat is not an apology, that is more like when a child calls someone in the class Ugly, and the teacher tells him to apologize and he says "OK, I'm sorry that you're ugly".
ReplyDeleteIn Bibi's case, and apology would have been "I am sorry that on my watch Hamas was allowed to arm and plan this attack and my government and military intelligence who were answerable to me were unable to prevent this attack"
"can possibly still be asleep at 6:30am"
ReplyDeleteYou may recall that it was a chag.
Whoops, I guess I'm being a "Bibist", which means, "Shut up, person who doesn't blame Bibi for everything, while I feel superior."