Does Netanyahu Think Trump Is A Traitor?

If five thousand Israelis stormed their government like the followers of Trump did on Jan.6th, would Netanyahu have them all arrested and tried for treason? Would Putin – who Bibi and Donald refuse to condemn! This is not the Republican Party and Israel Ronald Regan knew. Would Reagan arrest American Jews who raised hell in Washington – while we are at war?

There are six million American Jews. How many are concerned about not living in America – if Trump gets reelected? How many would move to Israel to escape the tyranny? Don’t you wish you had dual-citizenship?

John Presco

1. The size of the U.S. Jewish population

For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump, shown in 2020, regaining or holding on to power means, among other things, subordinating judicial institutions that define and enforce the rule of law. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Opinion by BERNARD AVISHAI

04/06/2023 09:39 AM EDT

Bernard Avishai, the author of The Tragedy of Zionism and The Hebrew Republic, among other books, splits his time between Jerusalem and New Hampshirewhere he teaches political economy at Dartmouth College.

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have been allies, but also, intriguingly, mirror one another.

That’s not only because both see “strength” as their go-to asset, or at least the con that the political base seems most likely to buy. Each claims to be his nation’s singular guardian against catastrophe. Each turns shamelessness into charisma. Each grew up coddled but plays up resentments for elites. Each cultivates, in effect, dictators like Vladimir Putin and Victor Orban and scoffs at Western Europe. Each will tolerate only loyalists, and has a string of former appointees, especially high-ranking security professionals, who look back on their service in disgust. Each brags promiscuously, condemns “fake news” and has a sycophantic, tweeting son.

Now, Trump, already running for president, is under indictment, a half-year after Netanyahu, already on trial, was reelected prime minister. Trump will deny learning from anyone; but if Israel, at times, seems like America in microcosm, then Netanyahu’s playbook might well provide some coaching. The crisis confronting Israel’s democracy, prompted by Netanyahu’s assault on the judiciary, is cautionary for the United States, moreover. One hopes that the mass response to that assault is instructive, too.

I hasten to add the obvious, that comparing Israel with the United States takes imagination. Israel is four-fifths the size of Massachusetts, with a population something less than Greater Chicago’s — and that’s before we get to history, religion, resources and culture.

Protests erupt after Israel’s Netanyahu fires defense ministerShare

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.621.0_en.html#goog_249461069Play Video

But Israeli and American politicians often seem caught up in the same game. Israel, like America, suffers tensions between people on the peripheries of cities and those on the urban coast, between the less well-educated, who are often religiously dogmatic, and those more cosmopolitan and scientifically inclined; between those leaning to the right and those to the left. A broad middle also exists, with people who may be religiously sentimental, or reasonably tolerant, or just can’t be bothered; over 40 percent of Israelis are secular, about 30 percent of Americans. Israel’s inequalities are generated by a globalized, technological and entrepreneurial economy. When Israelis say “elites,” they mean pretty much what Americans do.