Netanyahu is Israel's biggest threat - Washington Post defense analyst

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel's number one security threat, wrote The Washington Post's defense analyst Max Boot in an opinion column he wrote on Sunday morning.

Boot began the piece by noting that he had similarly said former president Donald Trump was "America's No. 1 security threat" in the past.

Soon Bibi and his far-right cabinet are likely to have a free hand to enact even more of their ultra-nationalist agenda despite their ultra-thin electoral majority – with dire consequences not only for Israeli democracy but also for Israel’s security. https://t.co/5n5huLRBSr

— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) July 23, 2023

“'Bibi,' as he is universally known, doesn’t seem to care that his policies are undermining Israeli democracy, risking Israel’s close relationship with the United States, and might even be sparking another violent uprising — a third intifada — among West Bank Palestinians. Like Trump, he seems to care about nothing but holding onto power, and his radical policies are the price of keeping together a coalition of far-right extremist parties," wrote Boot.

The defense analyst stressed that US President Joe Biden has been "trying to warn Bibi off the destructive path he is on — but to no avail."

Boot pointed to an op-ed by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman warning of the effects of the judicial reform on relations between the US and Israel, saying that Friedman has been "called in" by Biden to write the piece.

Boot also rejected accusations by Republican politicians that Biden is "being anti-Israel."

"Netanyahu may well calculate that, with all of his GOP support, he doesn’t have to listen to what the Democratic president is telling him — no matter how much long-term damage he does to Israel’s standing with American public opinion," wrote the analyst.

Boot noted that the reasonableness standard bill will lead to Israel losing "one of its few checks on majoritarian tyranny."

'Netanyahu's government will have free hand to enact ultranationalist agenda'

"Soon Bibi and his far-right cabinet are likely to have a free hand to enact even more of their ultranationalist agenda despite their ultrathin electoral majority — with dire consequences not only for Israeli democracy but also for Israel’s security," stressed Boot.

The defense analyst additionally pointed to anti-Palestinian comments made by far-right members of the coalition, including when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said "Huwara needs to be erased," noting that "nearly 30 years after the signing of the Oslo accords, Palestinians are losing hope that they will ever have their own nation."

Boot stressed that he was told by a US security official that for operations such as the recent IDF operation in Jenin to have any lasting effects, Palestinian security forces will need to reenter Jenin and Israeli settler violence will need to stop.

“When settler violence stops all things are possible,” the US official said, according to Boot. “Until it stops, there is no way to move forward with real security measures or real stability.”

"As Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary, it has much to be proud of: The Jewish state is wealthier and more powerful than anyone could have imagined in 1948," wrote Boot. "But it also faces a troubling dilemma that no one could have imagined in the days when Israel was led by giants such as David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir: What do you do when the gravest security threat to the state comes from its own leaders?"

"Biden is trying to reason with Netanyahu, but Bibi isn’t listening to reason — and both Israelis and Palestinians are likely to pay a steep price for the prime minister’s destructive and deluded policies."

Boot serves as the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in biography. He was named in 2018 one of America’s “Great Immigrants” by the Carnegie Corporation and one of the 50 most influential Jewish Americans by the Forward. The analyst has been called one of the “world’s leading authorities on armed conflict” by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.