A few days ago, a radio station held an interview with left-wing activist Aybee Binyamin regarding the developing prisoner exchange agreement. Throughout the interview, he insisted that the hostages must all be recovered at any price.
"Any price?" the host asked again.
"Any price,” Aybee declared confidently.
“And if the price should be that Netanyahu remains in power?” asked the host.
Aybee didn’t have an answer.
So, who wants elections? As if we don't have soldiers being killed in Gaza, a war in the north, and thousands of evacuees from north and south who need support in every aspect of their lives.
Whose situation is so peaceful that the only thing concerning him is regime change in Israel? Who is in such a political crisis that the only thing that could keep them from being purged from politics would be early elections?
The brief interview with the left-wing activist and his answer, which - to be fair - was honest, tell the whole story.
The same people who went out to Kaplan Street before October 7th are the ones filling the streets after October 7th. The same faces, the same slogans, the same messages, the same flags, and as always, the same motive - removing Netanyahu from power. Only the context has changed.
Originally, it was a "radical" right-wing government, then the judicial reform, then the reasonability standard, and then the haredim. That's what happens when you take a commercial break and don't actually have anything important on the agenda - the haredim and issues of religion and state are always interesting to someone.
Interviewers criticized Netanyahu non-stop and mocked members of his government. Minister of Settlements and National Missions Orit Strock warned that Hamas was arming itself in Gaza at least twelve times, but received only a protracted outpouring of scorn in the best of cases and highly targeted critiques of the very existence of the government in less fortunate cases.
Then the war broke out. in the first days of the war, there was no right or left, religious or secular, south or central, Tel Aviv or the periphery. We were all in the same boat, and everyone joined the effort en masse, each in their own way. It was inspiring. That, and only that, turned us into a single entity against our true enemies outside the borders of Israel.
Nevertheless, the human condition did its work. A month passed, then two. Netanyahu was on the podium too much and brought them back to reality with speeches about unspeakable deeds. How could it be that he was still there and that his messages are still being heard?
Everyone agrees that a state commission of inquiry will be formed, which will investigate, clarify, deliberate, and make decisions. Everyone believes that its work will be limited to a set period and that its decisions will be adopted. This is the correct way to investigate the greatest security disaster in the history of Zionism.
For some people, though, that is too slow. They want to see Netanyahu on the guillotine - now, yesterday, ten months ago. the only difference is that the case they are using now is written in blood on the heart of every Israeli.
More than a few people on the right are attracted to this course of action. In the name of zealous repentance and absolving their political guilt, they demand national justice be done by going to early elections.
My comrades of the right, ease up. Cease fire. Don't be led astray by the smokescreen the left is spreading with the singular goal of removing the right-wing government and installing a left-wing government in its place. There is no connection between that and doing justice for the victims of the October 7th massacre. It will be exactly the same politics.
I will end by quoting the incisive and accurate statement of singer and reservist Idan Amedi, as he said a few days before being seriously wounded in Gaza: “Anyone without something good or unifying to say, just shut up.”
It's that simple.