The real reason for Kellogg's departure: The Netanyahu campaign was launched, and then a call came from Miami

On Sunday evening, the announcement was made, strategic advisor Moshe Klugeft was recruited to the Likud campaign.

But in the meantime, a new day dawned, and Cloghept also became history.

Why?

Apparently there was someone in Miami who didn't know about it

Ben Caspit

08/09/2022

Thursday, 08 September 2022, 22:23 Updated: Friday, 09 September 2022, 09:09

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The announcement came out on Sunday evening.

Strategic advisor Moshe Klugeft was recruited to the Likud campaign.

Apparently the surge in the polls motivated Netanyahu to bring in someone who is able to pull the 61 mandate cart out of the mud.

Kellogg was the natural candidate.

A smart strategist, an experienced campaigner, who has already worked with Bennett (more than once) and Netanyahu, won the presidential election in Georgia and worked with the Chancellor of Austria.

Klugeft knows Netanyahu very well, knows his opponents just as well and is considered one of the most predatory fish in the local political swamp.

He fits Netanyahu like a glove.

Bingo.

The reactions were also accordingly.

Meanwhile, the sun set on Sunday and rose, ten hours later, on Monday.

New day, new world.

At the end of the second day of Kellogg's tenure as strategic advisor to the head of the opposition, he too became history.

It was a short and traumatic tenure.

Chronicle of a farce known in advance.

Klugeft himself realized the incident after a few hours and published a restrained message on the second evening, full of British politeness, without ranting and without whining.

He also does not give interviews on the subject and tries to preserve the dignity of those involved.

What a shame that no one tried to preserve his dignity.

The bibists' collection of excuses is varied, as usual.

There are those who say that in Netanyahu's environment, among his advisers, there was opposition.

MK Galit Distel Atbarian did the least she could when she hung up the contract with Klugeft on budgetary difficulties: "This is already the fifth campaign, the budget is much smaller now, I know that Klugeft has a huge appreciation on Netanyahu's part." We are considering the legal defense of Netanyahu's aides who are suspected of harassing a state witness. What does this have to do with Likud?

Moshe Klugeft (Photo: Eric Sultan)

And now, to the facts: in the last month, Netanyahu and Kellogg met about eight times.

All the employees of Citadel Ze'ev knew this.

Most of the political reporters too.

The relationship between them grew tighter as Netanyahu's lead in the polls became established.

Eventually an agreement was reached.

A contract was drawn up.

A contract was signed.

There was a handshake.

Kellogg has already received a list of tasks from Netanyahu, and a series of meetings have been scheduled for him.

The press release was published.

It was possible to start working, seemingly.

So that's it, no.

Two hours after the announcement, the first phone call came from Miami.

Someone who didn't know was sitting there.

He has not been in Israel for weeks.

Probably fell asleep on guard.

He spoke to the secretariat at the Citadel, he asked that they get his father to him urgently and then, according to what is said in the top Likud, he "washed" his father as well and called all the bureau's senior officials to impress upon them his decisive opinion.

The journalist Yaki Adamkar, who published the existence of these phone calls, did not receive a denial.

Kellogg didn't know.

When he tried to start work on Monday, the stuttering started.

Listen, there's a problem.

Give us a few hours.

Netanyahu himself also promised that "we will take care of it".

Tried to treat.

The "few hours" passed, and it was said that "a few more hours" were needed.

For the third time Klugeft realized and cut.

He does not rail against those who passed him the Zobor that so many passed before him, but he is heard telling someone that "it was a crazy event".

And regarding the excuses: those who claim that "Netanyahu's advisers botched it", forgot to check the details: the most senior of the advisers, Topaz Luke, is the one who brought Klugeft this round to Netanyahu.

The (not bad) idea was his.

The other advisor, Ofer Golan, is the one who signed the announcement announcing the arrival of Klugeft.

The third, Yonatan Urich, the one who allegedly opposes, is also the one who distributed the message that Golan drafted, from his cell phone, to the political reporters.

Think about it for a moment: Netanyahu wanted and still wants, very much, to bring Kellogg to this critical role in the most dramatic campaign of his life.

Netanyahu has been working on this project for weeks.

Two hours after the mission was completed, it was canceled as if it had never happened.

Not by Binyamin Netanyahu but, apparently, by another Netanyahu.

Targeted countermeasures

I'm troubling you with this story because there is no gossip here, there is no yellowness here, there are no trifles here.

This is how Netanyahu's environment operates and this is how the State of Israel has also operated in recent years.

Readers of this column are familiar with many examples of important decisions, some of them security, political or economic, made by Netanyahu and reversed after clashing with his son, or his wife, or both.

At first it was funny, then it was less funny.

There are dozens of people walking around Israel who held very senior positions, less senior positions and juniors around Netanyahu, but were deprived of their positions and status only because someone on the living floor decided that they did not look good to him.

This includes officials, politicians, senior advisers and associates.

Anyone who has ever been there knows.

There is one more thing: a few days before this farce, Klugeft went to Aviv Geffen's concert.

It's still legal.

Unfortunately for him, Defense Minister Benny Gantz also went to the same concert.

They ran into each other randomly.

Maayan Israeli, Gantz's chief of staff, who is friends with Kelloggft, called him.

He is coming.

They stood there, between eight and ten minutes, chatting.

Someone took a picture.

Someone uploaded it.

poof

There was Kelloggft, and we are no more.

It was the lightest targeted counterattack in Gantz's history.

Even he, who was nicknamed "Benihuta" in the IDF, did not expect this to happen. That the innocent picture of him chattering a few polite words with a well-known strategic advisor will shake up the election campaign and cause Netanyahu to lose his senior advisor. But it happened. Until recently, that's how it went the state

The Netanyahus live in a conspiratorial world, on steroids.

Netanyahu once canceled the appointment of a senior businessman to the position of chairman of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (Yuli Edelstein was then the appointed minister and he made the appointment) only because someone said that the same candidate had once encountered Tzipi Livni on the cliff coast and chatted with her for a few minutes.

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Served on behalf of Shachel

Gantz (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Israel's ambassador to Australia, who was destined to be Netanyahu's chief of staff Erez, bought tickets to Israel - then canceled them and unpacked the luggage because someone told someone that it was an appointment that he was "a friend of Ben Caspit".

So, originally.

One of the CEOs in the Prime Minister's Office almost lost his job when it was revealed that he once donated to Gideon Sa'ar's primaries (when Sa'ar was in Likud, yes?). They studied law together, so he transferred a few shekels to the campaign. It's not enough to win the primaries, it's probably Enough to lose your world.

And these are just examples. This family collects intelligence all day long on anyone they don't like. If at least it was high-quality intelligence. As far as is known, the Mossad did not cooperate with it. The chief collection officer is usually Natan Eshel , who is also an amateur photographer, a forward observation officer, and the family gravedigger and head of the exchange institution, but not only.

A rumor tail and a pinch of hair is enough to secure heads, as senior as possible.

Kelloggft is the 2,000-year-old, or so.

Eliminate Lieberman

In recent weeks, the bibists have been stirring up an uproar over what they define as the "culture of disqualifications and confiscations".

How can Bibi be banned??!!

They freak out, where did this culture of disqualification come from?

At this rate they will soon challenge Lapid, Gantz and Sa'ar as to why they are dragging Israel into an endless series of election campaigns.

After all, all that needs to be done is to sit with Bibi in a stable government, right?

So why are you boycotting?

This is a ridiculous troll.

Bibi's example was the diligent student that the queen of the class decided to boycott him for doing no wrong.

The poor guy does homework for everyone and gets a shameful shaming in return.

Heaven is right.

They do all this, instead of solving the problem in a simple way: remove the boycott and establish a stable government led by Bibi, for the glory of the State of Israel.

Wait, weren't we already in this movie?

After all, Gantz already sat under Netanyahu in a stable government, didn't he?

and what happened?

One minute after this government was formed, Netanyahu spat on the agreement, the commitment, the signature and the country - and decided not to pass the biennial budget that Israel needed like air to breathe.

Why?

As Ze'ev Elkin told last week, the reason was simple: "If we don't dissolve the government, they will appoint the state attorney!" Netanyahu told him.

Yark on the agreement, on the commitment, on the signature and on the country.

Netanyahu (photo: official website, no)

The only way to dismantle the government was through not passing a budget.

This is the only point that the architects of that rotation agreement did not think about.

When someone said then: Comrades, be careful, you are leaving Bibi with the option of violating the rotation if he does not pass a budget, the appointed Minister of Justice Avi Nissenkorn stood up and said: Are you crazy?

Do you think he will violate the coalition agreement as soon as the government is formed?

Do you really believe he won't pass a budget?

After all, it was he who raised the demand to pass a two-year budget immediately, wasn't he?

Yes.

He made the demand, and he violated it right after.

Because this is a simple event: no one is boycotting Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is the one confiscating the state.

He is the one who is ready to throw to hell Israel's economy, Israel's security, Israel's most important state interests, provided he remains in power.

This has happened and been proven many times.

And that is why so many in the political, security, economic and public systems simply pulled their hands off this man, his family and everything they symbolize.

He does not hesitate to tear Israeli society apart from the inside by his rowdy agents.

One of them invented the theory of "Israel the first and the second", the other leads a venomous campaign of "treacherous leftists", entire gangs systematically vilify the gatekeepers, the plaintiff in the trial, anyone who does not swear in the name of the royal family.

The last one to kidnap was Jonathan Pollard.

And one last little thing: once, even my uncle Amsalem and my father Dichter said that a prime minister with an indictment for bribery cannot serve.

It is inconceivable.

In the meantime, some of us have lost our minds, but not all of us.

Yes, it is legitimate to think that it is immoral to allow a person accused of serious crimes to run a country like the State of Israel.

The law allows him to do this, but it is not a legal matter.

It is a public, moral, value, ethical matter.

If Kellogg had not been thrown under the wheels of the Bibi-Bass even before he started working, I guess he would have advised Netanyahu to step down from the spectacle of performing in front of an audience in a transparent glass cage, and also from the sweaty and transparent efforts to get rid of Avigdor Lieberman.

Lieberman has a somewhat out-of-date mobster image.

He earned it with a certain honesty.

This does not mean that the public will believe someone who will emerge after 20 years with the fantastic story about the assassination of Chief Moshe Mizrahi for $100,000.

Especially when that someone is a serial conspirator (ask Ram Ben-Barak) who has sued and been sued countless times, also by the state, when he is usually on the losing side.

The story is simple: Netanyahu knows that if he does not keep one of the parties of the opposing bloc below the percentage of blocking, his chances of passing the barrier of 61 mandates are not high.

Regarding work and Meretz, he does not need to interfere, they manage on their own.

What is left for him to do is what he has been trying to do in all recent campaigns: eliminate Lieberman.

I don't think it will help this time either.

Chronic optimist

We are used to talking about the northern front in apocalyptic terms.

The "Great Northern War" has become a swinging sword over our heads, a futuristic multi-missile monster that threatens to wreak havoc on Israel like it has never experienced before.

We are threatened with thousands of rockets and precision missiles per day, with the "occupation of the Galilee" by Nasrallah's commandos (Radwan Force), with unprecedented destruction in the rear.

Precisely the man responsible for this complex and explosive front in the last three and a half years, General Amir Baram, is much calmer than its threats.

Baram will hand over command the day after tomorrow to General Uri Gordin.

Strangely, he actually thinks the situation is not bad at all.

No one will conquer the Galilee, Nasrallah is a lonely man, a tragic figure, a man trapped in a cruel dilemma, in which no choice is heartwarming.

In short, there is no need to exaggerate.

The Galilee is flourishing, the Golan Heights is thriving, the command managed to stop and completely prevent the Golan Heights from becoming Nasrallah's "second front", and everything, or at least the majority, is not bad at all.

You have to work hard so that it stays that way, you must not underestimate the threat, you have to be prepared at any moment for the worst, but there is no reason to panic.

Nasrallah would change hands with the IDF at any given moment. He has problems at home, he has cracks in his base, the Shiites are not what they used to be either. In Beirut and even in southern Lebanon, they are beginning to ask difficult questions. There are already Lebanese journalists who call Hezbollah "a terrorist organization that behaves like Mafia" (follow the mourning ads). Talkbackists in Beirut mock Nasrallah and say "Listen, we would die to be in the position of those you defeated." Baram is a "freak" of media and social networks in Lebanon. He lives, understands and breathes Nasrallah and in the end states that it is In "A Lonely Man".

All his partners and close allies are no longer there.

I don't envy him."

Still don't know where he's headed.

General Amir Baram (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Baram still does not know where he is headed.

He is offered the position of First Deputy Chief of Staff, but he is not really enthusiastic. This man has spent the last 35 years at the sharpest and most distant point of combat that the IDF has to offer.

Paratrooper Planet Commander, Paratrooper Patrol Commander, Battalion 890 Commander, Magellan Commander, Shomron Brigade Commander, Paratrooper Brigade, Division 98 Commander, Division 91 Commander, Commander of the Northern Brigade and Commander of the Northern Command.

There is not a stone in the Galilee or the Golan that he does not know personally.

In the midst of all this, he has not yet had the chance to do a single staff role.

The army threw him, regularly, to the hottest fronts.

Not that he has any complaints.

He does not have.

He is 53 years old, in uniform from the age of 14 (military boarding school) and would have stayed in uniform, if it had been possible, until the age of 94. One of the types who would also like to spend their sheltered housing days in a military camp.

If it helps that he stays in the IDF, he will happily stay there. If not? Not bad.

Baram follows the process that Lebanon is going through with bated breath.

Even the Shiites, as mentioned, are not what they used to be.

The generation is waning.

Nasrallah, he says, visited quite a few bereaved families.

The value of human life among the Shiites, in Lebanon as well as in Iran, has increased greatly in the current era.

Gone are the days when an unlimited number of warriors could be sacrificed.

The concept of the "Shia suicide" has passed away.

Today, most suicide bombers in the Middle East are radical Sunnis.

The Iranians make sure to send "militias" to the front, Nasrallah tries to save the lives of his people.

They do not sanctify death.

It's over.

They want to live and yes, they want life to be comfortable.

Yes, Baram is a chronic optimist.

incurable.

In a detailed summary document that he prepared near the end of his position, he states that "I truly believe that the Zionist movement has won. The State of Israel has no external existential threat (I am not referring here to the emerging threat from Iran), and our most difficult problems are mainly internal ones. Israel is a First World country surrounded by countries Third world, certainly in the northern arena. These are artificial political entities, extreme in some of their components and with loose internal governance."

Go to Gaza

In closed conversations, Baram tells about the difference: when you stand in Misgab with and look north, at night, southern Lebanon is almost completely dark.

Turn your gaze to the south, Israel is all illuminated, with precious light.

The same story in the Golan Heights.

A look towards Syria, a wasteland.

A view of the Israeli Golan, a flowering garden.

If you have no choice and must immigrate to one of the enemy countries on our border, he says, go to Gaza.

The situation there is better than in Lebanon or Syria.

And that's the whole story, in a nutshell.

His most notable success, as mentioned, is thwarting the establishment of the "second front" that Nasrallah tried to establish in southern Syria.

"Southern Syria will not be southern Lebanon," defined Baram Matra when he took office.

When he comes out, it turns out that it worked.

But it is not obvious.

"The IDF works on this every day, all day.

raiding, attacking, both in the air, and on land, everywhere." Most of this activity remains secret, including - according to reports - quite spectacular targeted countermeasures, in which the combined strength of the military and its intelligence capabilities are embodied: UAVs of all types, kinetic launch capability Infinite, human, sigintic, visual and sophisticated intelligence.

The Shia terrorist operatives are effectively transported to the next world.

Here, in the current world, they will not pose a threat to Israel on the Golan front.

point.

Everything is documented, photographed, investigated.

Despite the success, Baram tries not to get too carried away (this is one of his weaknesses).

According to him, one failure on the fence will force him to do Harkiri.

He knows that underestimation can be fatal.

Success is self-evident.

Failures can be fate.

And yet, he has complete confidence in the IDF's ability to successfully meet and deter threats.

In his summary document, he details the IDF's major military challenges on the northern front: the missile and rocket capability of the other side (including UAVs, drones, etc.), the specific limitations to the IDF's freedom of action (mainly against Lebanon) embodied in the rules of the game that were formulated Facing Hezbollah and "various issues in readiness for a broad land campaign". Here, in the ground maneuver required to decide the next round, one can identify the IDF's Achilles heel.

This heel was exposed in all its weakness in the Second Lebanon War.

Has the IDF managed to create a capability for land maneuver in a problematic arena like the Lebanese arena? According to retired Major General Yitzhak Barik, no. Absolutely not. Far from it. According to Major General Amir Baram, it is not clear or probably not really.

He would switch with the IDF at any given moment (photo: official website, Al Maner)

And what about Hassan Nasrallah?

In background conversations that I have held in recent years with the most senior military and security officials, a clear opinion was heard, shared by almost everyone: Israel should pray for the safety and health of Nasrallah three times a day.

He is a bitter enemy, but familiar.

Smart, pragmatic, accurate, you can do business with him, reach understandings with him.

Much better than chaotic alternatives of the kind we have in other arenas.

Baram thinks a little differently.

He lives and breathes Nasrallah, trying to understand what he feels, what he is going through.

Nasrallah, in his view, is a lonely person.

Maybe even a tragic figure.

Imad Mornia, his right hand, was taken from him.

Qassem Soleimani, his patron and great partner, was taken from him.

Mustafa Badr al-Din, one of the most powerful people in Hezbollah who is considered to be close to Nasrallah, was assassinated in 2016 (it is believed to be the work of Nasrallah himself).

He was left alone.

In the bunker, he doesn't see the light of day most of the time, he only comes out when he has to, the burden of trouble piled on his shoulders is only getting bigger, Lebanon is falling apart, and nothing good threatens him from any direction.

Nasrallah's health condition is unclear, but he cannot be good.

He is overweight, lack of sunlight has never benefited anyone.

He holds the title he gave himself as "protector of Lebanon", but Lebanon is in a process of rapid collapse.

In the midst of all this, he suddenly sees a huge Israeli gas rig crossing the Suez Canal and parked in front of Lebanon's economic waters, sees the Lebanese government conducting negotiations with Israel, understands what is happening and tries to carve out a piece of the action for himself.

Tall tree

Did he climb a tall tree?

Yes.

Does he want war with Israel?

No.

Does he know Israel's capabilities?

Yes.

Does he trust his abilities?

As well.

All of the above puts him in a cruel dilemma.

He must convince the Lebanese public that he has a part in the celebration.

He cannot be responsible for Lebanon not being able to produce gas.

So he freaks out.

In other words: the chance of a war with Nasrallah over the gas negotiations is very low, but it exists. Miscalculation, etc.

Nasrallah knows Israeli society in detail, he knows that an argument on his part will lead to a hysterical media reaction on the other side, so he exhausts it.

The media, in Baram's view, echoes his messages and amplifies them.

All in all, he knows what he is capable of achieving, and he knows his limitations.

You don't need to panic, but you don't need to underestimate either.

Proportions should be maintained, the command should be prepared for the worst and not lose sight of the main goal: securing the future of the "Shark" rig and striving for a situation where Lebanon will also have a gas rig in the region, which will reduce a lot of headaches for Israel.

The conflict over the gas, says the commander of the command in closed conversations, is solvable and immaterial.

It is a dispute over the interpretation of where the dividing line between the economic waters of neighboring countries passes.

Both sides, Lebanon and Israel, want the same thing: to have a Lebanese rig opposite the Israeli rig.

"Shark" remains, in any case, in our hands.

Israel will receive some share of the mostly Lebanese Kana reservoir, through the production company.

Now the size of the stake is being debated, but it is on the margins.

In the midst of all this, Nasrallah's situation is embodied in the appearance of the Lebanese Minister of Energy a few days ago near the fence in front of Metula.

The minister, a Shia member of Hezbollah, stood up and started throwing stones at the fence.

"He who lives in a glass palace should not throw stones at his neighbors," responded Lebanese talkbackists.

Israel, according to Baram's method, contains the event and is patient, but holds a large sprout in her hand.

Nasrallah also knows this.

Meanwhile, under the radar, the IDF is investing huge efforts in completing the barrier along the fence. In two or three years there will be an almost impenetrable wall, equipped with the best of Israeli technology, from the head of the Hanaka to Mount Dov. A crazy, almost unbelievable engineering operation that is happening before the eyes of Nasrallah. When this is completed, it will be much more difficult for Commando Radwan to surprise the IDF.

Difficult, but possible.

It must not be forgotten.

"There is no insurmountable obstacle," emphasizes Baram, "we must not forget that for a moment."

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