Please tell me: Am I the only one who is “sick of it”? And if I am the only one . . . I still am sick of it. (And, as we Brooklyn and Lower East Side children of Russian and Polish immigrants to America would add: Already !). I am sick of it already . 1, The United States is at least as much a democracy as is Israel. 2. Its 1789 Constitution has held 235 years. 3. During Donald Trump’s first term, his Democrat opponents impeached him as often as time allowed. 4. When he got tired of his Defense Secretary, Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis, Trump got rid of him. No impeachment. He’s allowed to do that. 5. Why couldn’t — why didn’t — Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu get rid of his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, right away — and stick to it? Because in Israel, the Attorney General and the Supreme Court claim he needs their approval. 6. When Trump got tired of his FBI director, James Comey, he got rid of him. Again with Christopher Wray. No impeachment. He’s allowed to do that. 7. Since October 7, why couldn’ Netanyahu get rid of his director of Shin-Bet/ Shabak (Israel Security Agency, the Israeli FBI), Ronen Bar, right away — and stick to it? Because in Israel, the Attorney General and the Supreme Court think it is their agreement that counts. 8. When Trump got tired of his Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions, he got rid of him. No impeachment. He’s allowed to do that. 9. Why didn’t Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu get rid of his Attorney-General, Gali Baharav-Miara, right away — and stick to it? Because in Israel, the Supreme Court thinks they have the final say on that. In any normal democracy, a head of government has absolute authority and commonsense right to throw out any executive-branch cabinet-level figure he chooses. Not in Israel. While the prime minister has the right to hire and fire his own cabinet, he Attorney General even interfered in his choice of Deri as cabinet minister. And won. That is why Netanyahu lingers and languishes and multiplies his political woes by delaying. British prime minister Rishi Sunak fired his Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. British PM Liz Truss fired Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng. They don’t need a reason. “Mr. Prime Minister, why are you firing Gallant / Bar / etc.?” “Why? Because his wife told me he snores at night. I don’t like schnorrers , and I don’t like snoreres. That’s why.” End of story. Not in Israel. The great strength and weakness of Binyamin Netanyahu is that he cannot pull the trigger all the way. He is calm, rational, contemplative, and methodical. Good — but . . .he has to fight the entrenched and unelected bureaucrats every step of the way. He waited for the reports saying that ISA head Ronen Bar decided not to call him on October 6, figuring the courts could not ignore that. They have frozen Bar's dismissal until a hearing takes place. I hope he is not going to end up like the guy in the movies who spends 110 minutes searching for the evil monstrous goon and finally finds him in the hiding place with ten minutes left. He corners him. He points his gun at the guy and cocks the trigger. The good guy has waited 110 minutes — a lifetime — to find and kill this animal. Even better: The monster has his hands up — just in time to get killed before the two-hour movie ends. And then our hero, with his gun cocked, starts reciting a soliloquy, talking and talking and talking and narrating why he is going to pull the trigger and describing how he will pull the trigger and what will happen as soon as he pulls the trigger and how the pulled trigger will deliver long-sought-but-denied justice — “ Ezrachei Yisrael !” — and then, invariably, a confederate of the bad guy emerges from behind and shoots and kills our good guy who has the cocked gun and clear shot. But there are eight minutes left to the film, plenty of time for Clint Eastwood to ask “Do you feel lucky today?” and shoot, or for the deceased Good Guy’s girlfriend to stab the two bad guys, just in time for the credits. Israel needs Jack Bauer or the Old Captain Kirk from “ The Search for Spock ,” where he tells Kruge the Klingon “ I have had enough of you .” Fahrtik . Instead, for a decade-plus, Hamlet. He doesn't finish the job and pull the trigger, and he has 20-30 Likud back-benchers with all the gumption of politicians protecting their seats. So the contemplation and procrastination: To be or not to be. To finish off Hamas or to sign a promise that they will move across the street and never do it again. To continue sending in more oversupplied trucks of food in a plot to kill Gaza’s Arabs with obesity and heart attacks — or not to. To give them electricity and fuel and let in billions from Qatar and overlook the mass construction of tunnels — or not to. To take out the Iranian nuclear program, its regime, and specifically Grand Poobah Khameini— or not to. To fire Bahav-Miara — or not to. Ein ladavar sof — there is no end to it. It is interminable. When there is a day of great news — 600 killed, five top Hamas leaders obliterated into dust — we no longer wake up the next day, excited to see what further news along those lines. In Megillah times, the Shushan Jews killed 500 antisemites, and the next day they wacked another 300. But with Israel, one day it is an end of the ceasefire and a return to an even more all-out crush. Ben-Gvir comes back. Agudah sees that, with Ben-Gvir back, they no longer can take down an evil government that wants Torah-true Jews to do what Torah-true Jews have been doing since the days of Moshe Rabbeinu, Joshua, King David, and the Sages of the Talmud: participating alongside everyone else in the defense of the Land while one million secular Israelis evade the draft by moving with their military-age children to Germany and Thailand. Gantz, Lapid, and all the Kaplanites criticize: “Bibi, what about ‘The Day After’?” A ridiculous question to ask him. On “The Day After” — Like every other day: “ Ezrachei Yisrael .” A speech. And the next day, speeches. And back to Ronen Bar and Bahav-Miara. What happened to the “resumed war”? Iran shoots ballistic missiles. Israel strategically waits. Good. Then Israel wipes out Iran’s anti-aircraft defenses in Syria and pretty-much all the SAM anti-aircraft batteries in Iran. Good. The IDF also wipes out pretty-much the country’s ballistic-missile production capabilities. Good. So now there’s basically nothing in the way that Israel cannot handle en route to going after the nukes. But, as they say on the late-night commercials for Sham-Wow! and for sunglasses that glow in the dark: But wait, there’s more! 1. Hezbollah is 80+ percent wiped out. All the leaders were pulverized into carbon or wacked. Everyone else was vasectomized, de-fingered, or blinded by the pagers and walkie-talkies. The 150,000 missiles were zapped. They no longer are in the way. But wait — there’s more! 2. Assad is out of power and arguing with his dying wife in Moscow while his automobiles languish in his Damascus palaces, piling up parking tickets. The new guy is anti-Alawite and anti-Shiite, so has thrown out or killed the remaining Hezbollah in Syria. He also will be a handful soon, with Turkey and his own Al Qaeda or ISIS stuff, but right now he is busy and cannot defend Iran, nor does he like them. But wait — there’s more! 3. Russia therefore has abandoned Syria and moved all it military materiel and advisors to Libya while Putin also remains tied up with Zelensky and Trump, not sure whether there will be a ceasefire, an intensification, or whether the American Democrats are preparing to accuse Musk of conspiring with Putin to change the results of the 2020 election. But wait — there’s more! 4. Lebanon is in chaos. Hezbollah, meanwhile, is less influential in the government and maybe even out. 5. Hamas has lost 20,000-30,000 of its fighters and a great deal of its weapons. In a brilliant strategy devised by Witkoff, Israel empowered Hamas to recruit another 20,000-30,000 fighters, repair and build more tunnels, and reassert their governance — all so that Israel can spend the next 15 months killing them , too, as it has begun to do. If there can be 50 such ceasefires, with 20,000 new Hamas barbarians recruited and killed each time, and new tunnels each time, then one million innocent Gaza civilians will be evacuated to Mr. Akbar in 62 years (50 ceasefires equal 50 resumed operations at 15 months (1.25 years) each.) So Gaza no longer is a factor in the way of de-nuking Iran. But wait — there’s more! 6. Houthis are not going to defend Iran. It works the other way. 7.. For most of his public life, Netanyahu has been telling the world that Iran is 23 minutes away from becoming irreversibly nuclear, only 23 minutes left to act. (Oh no! Now only 22 minutes). Any minute now, it will be too late. For the last 30 years, they have been only 23 minutes away. With Obama’s Iran Deal (2009-2016), it will be too late. Under Biden-Nides-Blinken-Lew, it will be too late — only 23 minutes away. So what in the world is he waiting for? It’s been only 23 minutes since forever. If Iran is so much on the brink, how can he procrastinate now while even Trump prods him? Is there something we don't know? 8. And while on “Hamlet,” why did he wait so long before firing Gallant ? Month after month after month, his Defense Minister defied him on everything, like a bad first spouse: Judicial reform. Conduct of the war. Haredim and the draft. If Netanyahu asked for a Pepsi, Gallant brought him a Coke. What in the world took so long to fire him? And once he finally did, what happened? Did the sky fall in, the government collapse? No. No one stormed the palace on Balfour. The Permanent Weekly Rioters on Kaplan just ordered new signs: “Bibi Crime Minister.” “Bring Them Home” (as opposed to the more sensible “Let The Go!”). “Bibi a War Criminal.” “Their Blood is on Your Hands.” “Fascist!” “Dictator!” “End of Democracy.” “King and Tyrant.” “Kahanist!” “Don’t Dare Fire Bahav-Miara.” “No Judicial Reform.” “We stand with Gallant.” “Don’t Dare Fire Bar.” “Bribed by Qatar!” It’s the same exact rallies every single week. They simply change the signs or write on the back of them. By now, the demonstrations have lost their dramatic impact; they have overplayed their hands. There is no longer anything surprising when 40,000 who are really 10,000 come out the same night for Bar or anything. It is expected. Ordinary Israelis are tired of having their lives disrupted and the demonstrators no longer pose a political threat. They cannot win an election, so this is what they do. Same people every Saturday night, with new signs for variety. Oh no, it’s Shikma Bressler! Who will save us from her? Let's dream: Netanyahu pulls the doggone trigger. Takes back the gas fields that Lapid illegally gave Nasrallah for Christmas. Creams them in Gaza. No more electricity anywhere, no food, no fuel, no medical supplies. Stops threatening and manifestly annexes parts of Gaza. Instead of Katz or Sa’ar threatening, Israel starts building a synagogue with a big Jewish star: The Young Israel of Khan Yunis. That will get their attention. When Israel starts laying the foundation for a shul in Gaza, hold onto your seats. For the next four years of Trump (may G-d protect him), the road light is green, but it will change to yellow and red in four or eight years if the chicken does not cross the road by then, so... Israel pulls the trigger. Creams Gaza. The International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice have played their hands. As Trump would say, they have no cards left. They already issued arrest warrants and declared genocide and war crimes. Nothing left. The UN resolutions? Trump will veto them. The UN has nothing left. Of course, Netanyahu fires Bar. Trump did that when he fired James Comey. He does it and sticks to it. And he fires Baharav-Miara, Gideon Sa’ar’s great find. Trump fired Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions. No one cared. Throw them all out, the entire Deep State. Trump is doing that in a real democracy of more than two centuries. Throw them out. And stick to it. Already.
