WaPo Declares ‘Trump-Like’ PM Benjamin Netanyahu Israel’s ‘Biggest’ Threat

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is Israel’s “biggest security threat,” according to a recent Washington Post essay slamming the “Trump-like” premier currently defying President Joe Biden in passing judicial reforms opposed by the current administration.

The Sunday article by columnist and prominent “Never Trumper” Max Boot, titled “Israel’s biggest security threat is Benjamin Netanyahu,” claims that like Donald Trump was “America’s No. 1 security threat” even prior to his presidency, today “Israel’s No. 1 security threat comes from its Trump-like prime minister: Benjamin Netanyahu.”

“[Netanyahu] 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,” Boot asserts. 

“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,” he added.

According to the author, President Biden is a “true friend of Israel” who has been “trying to warn Bibi off the destructive path he is on — but to no avail,” citing his “conciliatory gesture” of inviting Netanyahu to meet last week.

However, he wrote of the phone invitation last Monday, the “continuing discord between the two sides was evident in conflicting readouts of the Bibi-Biden call,” with the White House emphasizing the need for the “broadest possible consensus” before proceeding with judicial reforms, whereas the Israeli account focused on Iran and the “battle against terrorism.”

Boot charged that Biden’s “positive influence” is being “diluted by Bibi’s fervent Republican supporters, who ridiculously accuse Biden of being anti-Israel.”

“Republicans seem as eager to enable Netanyahu’s assault on Israeli democracy as they are Trump’s assault on U.S. democracy,” he wrote. 

“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,” he added.

He also warned that if Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul bill is approved — which it was on Monday — Israel will “lose one of its few checks on majoritarian tyranny, because the Israeli Supreme Court will no longer be able to override legislation on the (admittedly amorphous) grounds that it is not ‘reasonable.’” 

Furthermore, he claimed, in such an event, the prime minister 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.”

The author concluded by questioning: “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 wrote.

On Monday, Israel’s parliament (Knesset) passed the first of several judicial reforms proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government, defying protests and pressure from the White House.

The new law prevents courts from using their own conception of “reasonableness” in blocking government policies. 

Critics had long argued that the “reasonableness” doctrine allowed the left-leaning judiciary to abuse its power, which it tended to do against Israel’s conservative governments.

On Sunday, President Biden, whose administration publicly opposes Israel’s internal reforms, issued a last-minute warning to Netanyahu not to proceed. 

In reality, many of the reforms closely parallel existing practice in the U.S. and other democratic countries, with Israel’s judiciary beginning amassing extraordinary powers only in the 1990s.

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.