Ballistic missile launch during test, Iran (Iranian media)
Benjamin Netanyahu is the father of the Iranian bomb. It is a historical fact that no one, not even him, will be able to change. History, fortunately, does not count the Bibist poison machine. She counts only facts. All that will be written here now are facts: The Economist, perhaps the most important of the world's newspapers, has already defined Iran as a nuclear threshold state. It was written on these pages too, even earlier. But this was not the only thing that happened on Netanyahu's watch. It all happened on Netanyahu's watch. Do you remember that poster Netanyahu showed in his speech at the UN? By then, the Iranians had already crossed all the red lines that were on the poster.
All red lines have already been crossed. Netanyahu at the UN, September 2012 (Photo: Reuters)
Nuclear enrichment is a gradual matter and has four stations: enrichment to 3%, beyond 20% enrichment, beyond 60% enrichment and beyond 90% enrichment, which is already military enrichment. The Iranians crossed these four stations, and every such crossing happened on Netanyahu's watch. They crossed the 60 per cent threshold in April 2021, before the government of change was formed. Not long ago we were informed that they also crossed the last threshold (reaching 82%). In the West, there are those who believe that this happened to them by mistake. How do you enrich uranium to 82% by mistake? You never know. But this is a fact. They have enough sophisticated centrifuges capable of producing fissile material (military-grade enriched uranium) for four bombs in a matter of weeks.
Another fact: The American withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in 2018 is one of the heaviest strategic disasters that has happened to Israel since its establishment. It belongs entirely to the genius Netanyahu. His collaborators were two other geniuses in their own eyes, Ron Dermer and Yossi Cohen. This triumvirate has brought Iran to nuclear threshold status. The concept was simple: the U.S. would withdraw from the agreement and implement the policy of "maximum pressure." This will cause the Iranian regime to crawl back to a "better and longer" agreement, or it will cause the Iranian regime to collapse. And if not? If not, then Trump will attack the Iranian nuclear program and eliminate it.
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Iran has enough centrifuges to produce fissile material for four bombs within weeks. Iranian President Raisi, June 6, 2023 (Photo: Reuters)
Well, that didn't happen. What happened was that Trump was thrown out of the White House and led to the attack on the Capitol, and Iran took advantage of the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement to violate it. That agreement wasn't perfect. It had many drawbacks. But there is an absolute consensus around the fact that he has rolled back Iran's nuclear program and kept it frozen and distant. So thank you, Bibi.
A few days ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that it was closing two of Iran's "open files" on uranium enrichment. This is a very bad announcement as far as we are concerned. These open files are built on evidence of Iran's illegal nuclear activity. Most of the evidence for this came from our excellent young men (who are now demonstrating in Kaplan). These cases are stuck like a thorn in Iran's butt and could turn into sanctions at any moment, by a decision of the Board of Governors.
When Naftali Bennett heard that there was a possibility of closing the files last year, he quickly phoned Grossi, the head of the IAEA, and spoke to him three times. He dug and dug for him, until Grossi agreed to come for a quick visit to Israel. He arrived one Friday for only six hours, sat with Bennett in the Kirya, heard the experts of the Atomic Energy Commission, heard the Mossad, heard National Security Council head Dr. Eyal Hulta and announced: I am not closing the files, despite the heavy political pressure.
He received three calls from Bennett. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi with the President of Iran, March 5, 2023 (Photo: Reuters)
Now two of the files have been closed. Has anyone heard Netanyahu? It's probably not so urgent for him. The man disappeared as if swallowed by Ben-Gvir. I believe that he has placed the issue of Iran's open files on his new nuclear minister, Dudi Amsalem. Nor is he talking about the bad new nuclear deal that the Americans are going to conclude with the Iranians, once again, "on the head" of the man whose foolish followers still call "another league." A few days ago he said something weak like, "The agreements with Iran have no effect." Is? Is that all? Remember how you destroyed relations with Biden and the Democrats the last time they talked about a deal? What happened suddenly?
Netanyahu does not fight, does not speak, does not exist. Iran and the United States are about to sign an agreement defined as "less for less," and Netanyahu remains silent. Do you remember how he screamed when it seemed to be happening during Bennett's time? Do you remember what Lapid, Bennett and Gantz did then? They didn't talk much, they just torpedoed it. The first time through the intention to remove the Revolutionary Guards from the terror list, the second time through the same "open files." Patiently, cunningly and while upgrading relations with the United States and rehabilitating the Israeli-American alliance. Bennett visited Washington, Biden visited Jerusalem. That's how you have to work.
Netanyahu's disappearance has two possible explanations: either he experienced a system collapse, a complete shock, like a boxer leaning on the ropes, or a porcupine caught in the headlights of a car in the middle of the night. Or he is willing to sell Israel's security in exchange for his legacy. Netanyahu talks about normalization with Saudi Arabia with bright eyes. For him, this is more important than peace with Egypt, the Balfour Declaration, the Declaration of Independence. In fact, we know his attitude toward the Declaration of Independence. Netanyahu is apparently willing to turn a blind eye to a bad agreement between the U.S. and Iran and agree to transfer nuclear technology to Iran in exchange for a handshake and a photo opportunity with Mohammed bin Salman. If that's true, it's terrible.
The Saudis constantly raise their demands in exchange for peace with Israel. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with Antony Blinken, June 6, 2023 (Photo: Reuters)
Regarding a "less for less" nuclear agreement: an agreement that will not hold water and certainly not Iran's nuclear program, but it is better than nothing. Since after the withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, Netanyahu did (not) increase and neglect Israel's military option, we have no choice at the moment but to agree with gnashing of teeth to anything that will stop the Iranians from reaching the nuclear brink. As for the Saudi issue, it's more complicated. The Saudis constantly raise their demands for peace with Israel. The most problematic is the nuclear. They want to get what Iran has. They are not willing to buy enriched uranium for civilian nuclear energy, they want to enrich their territory. It would also turn Saudi Arabia into a nuclear threshold state. This will create a situation in which the entire Middle East will unburden and shackle and rush to nuclear power. It will be a colossal disaster for generations to come. But that apparently doesn't interest Netanyahu. Iran in exchange for Salman, that's the deal that interests him. His legacy is many times more important to him than our future.
I allow myself to deviate from facts in favor of assessment: I do not believe that the heads of the IDF, Military Intelligence, Mossad, and the various security and intelligence apparatuses will express support for Israeli-Saudi normalization at the price of uranium enrichment on Saudi soil. On the other hand, I'm also not sure they'll be given an opening here. Just as Netanyahu concealed his agreement to sell F-35s to the UAE at the time, just as he did not report to the IDF (as Eisenkot testified in an interview with Maariv) that he was working to remove the United States from the nuclear agreement, so he will act this time as well. He and Ron Dermer. Luckily, Yossi Cohen is no longer there.
How much would we be willing to pay to go back to 2018 now and tell Trump not to touch the nuclear agreement? Iran could be under intrusive supervision today, with very little uranium enriched to a very low level, with much, much fewer centrifuges. Instead, they are already on the nuclear brink, while at the same time digging a huge site at Natanz that will give them final immunity even from America's most formidable bunker-busters. Signing a "less for less" agreement now will block further enrichment, but not the continued development of capabilities, sophisticated centrifuges, etc.
Excavating a huge site at Natanz. Iranian underground air base (Photo: official website, from social networks)
If a "less for less" agreement is indeed signed, the Iranians will receive tens of billions of dollars frozen around the world, a return of international investors to deals and investments in Iran, but also the knowledge that it will be harder for Israel to attack them when they sign an international agreement. That's assuming Israel manages to develop some capability capable of threatening Iran's nuclear program in its current size and immunity. Netanyahu, we must not forget, left a broken, abandoned and neglected trough regarding the military option. He had more important things to do between 2018 and 2021. There was no procurement, no budgets, nothing. The Bennett-Lapid government stormed it, budgeted, purchased, ordered. It will take time. These things happen very slowly. This is Netanyahu's legacy.
Does all this mean it's time to fold up here and find another place? Not. But absolutely not. Israel will stand by this as well. We are much stronger than we seem, especially in these troubled times. In general, it is impossible to prevent a superpower of Iran's size from reaching a nuclear program if it is willing to pay the price. Iran is ready. Israel, mainly thanks to the tremendous efforts of Mossad and Military Intelligence over the years, has succeeded in delaying Iran for at least 20 years.
The key to removing the Iranian danger is twofold: to continue building Israeli deterrence and hope that the Iranian regime will fall at some point. And he will fall, as all dictatorships have fallen before him. The Iranians are extremists, but not stupid. They know what Israel is capable of doing to them, they also know that there is no country in the world with better interception capabilities than the capability built in Israel. They want to be a nuclear power, but they don't want to die.
Naftali Bennett, Omer Bar Lev and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai at the launch of the program to eradicate crime in the Arab sector, August 11, 2021 (Photo: Government Press Office, Amos Ben Gershom)
My longing for Segalovich
Ofra Lax is a right-wing, religious, journalist for Besheva, and a resident of Lod. On Thursday, she went on the air on Radio 103FM after a bullet entered her home overnight, nearly killing her. This is what she told Yanon Magal: "I have nothing against the Arabs, I have something against the criminal story that is happening here. The Arabs are the first to suffer. I survived yesterday, but they are murdered and injured all the time. Living in fear."
Magal, counting on Lex being in his camp, asked her if there had been any change since the change of government. "I hate to say," Lex replied, "but there is a change for the worse. There was really the safe path that started to give results." Magal asked what the safe route was. "This is the process that Segalovich led in the office," Lex replied, "it was an inter-ministerial process. The Public Security Ministry worked very hard, even though I don't identify with Omer Barlev, his office knew how to give work. They were still murdered and there were shots, and we shouted that it wasn't enough, but they gave work. Now the situation has gotten worse." Magal's response could not be reached.
A few hours after this interview, five more Arab citizens were murdered in the village of Yafia in one of the most horrific murder sprees of our time. At the same time, a 30-year-old man and a 3-year-old toddler were shot in the village of Kana. The number of murdered in the Arab sector since the beginning of the year has reached 98. An imaginary, unimaginable number. I am reminded of the police spokesman's statement that "Ben-Gvir's arrival at the Ministry of National Security creates deterrence in the Arab sector," and died of laughter. The problem is that the Arabs are really dead.
"The Department of Homeland Security worked very hard." Yoav Segalovich (Photo: Reuven Castro)
What is Netanyahu doing? He sets up another committee, invites the Arab MKs to a discussion, informs them that he will appoint a projector, runs into Ben-Gvir and then hurries to inform him that just, it was a joke, he will not appoint any projector without the minister's approval for a "national joke." Netanyahu's committees on crime will succeed just like the committees he establishes on the cost of living. After all, his socioeconomic cabinet has met once so far, and the discussion focused on the railway works on Saturday. The ultra-Orthodox resented this fact, which allows the train to function somehow. It hurts their faith.
Ofra Lax was right. The previous government gave work here. Why? Because it was run by people who know how to manage and came to work. Because its people talked less and did more. Prime Minister Bennett has marked crime in the Arab sector as a national goal and established a special task force on the issue. Because a projector named Yoav Segalovich was appointed, the most suitable man in the country for this task. Above him was a worthy minister named Omer Barlev. Bennett worked closely with them. Eight government ministries and quite a few authorities were recruited to the task force: the Ministries of the Interior, Health, Public Security, Finance, Justice, the Tax Authority, VAT, the Money Laundering Authority and many others. Segalovich sat with this team every Thursday. There were clear metrics and each week the results of the previous week were presented. Every few weeks, the extensive forum headed by Bennett convened.
Even before that, staff work was carried out, thinking was done and a strategy was formulated. A list was prepared containing nearly 200 names of the largest perpetrators of crime in the sector. The three major crime families have been identified, which are beginning to pose a real strategic threat to Israeli society. Two Muslim, one Druze. The state began to embitter the lives of these people in a professional, systematic, consistent and predatory way. Bennett himself heard one message from many Arab mayors: not interested in education, not interested in health, not interested in infrastructure. Only the crime is interesting. Education and health are worth nothing to us if we can't live quietly. It turned out that these crime families control a sector without Egypt, invade the Jewish space as well, disrupt the fabric of life, and tempt the younger generation to abandon their education and move to a fast track to advancement in the mafia. The state marked these bakeries and began to take care of them.
Unfit for the job. Itamar Ben-Gvir at the scene of the murder in Yafia, June 8, 2023 (Photo: Eli Ashkenazi)
What is the Netanyahu government doing? Caregiver at Angel Bakery. Besides, she babbles, shouts, shrieks, twitching, raging and burrowing into the sand of murder and violence. Bennett, Bar-Lev and Segalowitz succeeded in reducing the number of murders in the Arab sector by about 19%. Two of the heads of the crime families fled to Turkey. Much property, including luxury cars, was forfeited. The municipal tenders, which were completely controlled by the crime families, were nationalized by the state.
The ISA also went into work, within the framework of the existing law. It turned out that it was possible to find many ways to operate the ISA without resorting to problematic legislative changes in a democratic country. And most importantly, everyone involved, from Tax Authority Director Eran Yaakov through Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, all knew that the goal was shared and did not belong to one ego or another or political coupons. The results were clear, even though this system had been working for less than a year. One can only imagine what would have happened if Segalovich and the guys had stayed in office for a full term.
Last week, Segalovich took the podium in the Knesset and addressed the prime minister. He spoke for a minute and 48 seconds. From the blood of his heart. A respectful, focused, professional approach. Take a projector in my place, he told him. Set up a team of ministers, head it, put a safe track back on track, enact the laws we prepared in the pipeline, take matters into your own hands. You need lateral vision, he told him, it can be done.
Segalovich is right. He himself proved that it can be done. But no one listened to him. Yesterday, after the massacre in Yafia, Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu began shouting that "the Shin Bet must be brought in." Like it's a magic formula that will sort it all out. Well, it's not. You have to know how to work. That's all.
Itamar Ben-Gvir's efforts to reduce murders until now boil down to the fact that he torpedoed the electronic coupling law, which could have saved the lives of many murdered women. Why? Because it doesn't feel good in his eyes. He promised to bring in a new law within a month. So promised. Now he stutters something about the fact that he is willing for such a law to pass, but he demands a special budget for it. This man is about as qualified for his job as Yair Netanyahu is for Israel's ambassador to the United States.
Ben Gvir with Itamar Merzel and Bentzi Gopstein. They would not pass through the sieve of a public company (Photo: Flash 90, None)
Matchless
Let's close our eyes and think that Israel is not a democratic state (for now) but a huge public company. Let's say, a high-tech company. Companies of this type must have transparency, stock exchange reports, discretion, corporate responsibility, proper appointments, checks and balances. Now let's go through the list of ministers and senior appointments and try to find out which of them would pass through the filter of a public company.
Let's start with Itamar Ben-Gvir. Only this week it became known that he regularly consults on police matters with Benzi Gopstein (Josh Breiner's publication in Haaretz), while Baruch Merzel told Kan Reshet Bet that he received an offer from Ben-Gvir to join his office in any position and salary he chose. Luckily Marzel refused. I will not fall out of my chair if Ben-Gvir tries to recruit Amiram Ben-Uliel as an external consultant.
We must also remember Ben-Gvir's rich criminal record, the fact that he was a security guard for the Shin Bet and the police, who boasted that he managed to reach and tear off the symbol of the prime minister's Cadillac (shortly before he was murdered), the fact that over the years he operated the most disturbed hill boys, and I will stop here because there is not enough pattern in the world to continue. Is there a single public company in the entire universe that would dare to bring Itamar Ben-Gvir in charge of the police and internal security to the board of directors?
Brings down PR disasters every week. Galit Distal Atabrian with Ben-Gvir (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Next: Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance. Within weeks of taking office, he announced that it was the government that had to erase Huwara, and spoke at a conference abroad with a map in which the Kingdom of Jordan, which is a signatory to a peace treaty with Israel, does not exist. He also said that his economic doctrine is based on the Torah and "in my constitution you will go." Indeed, the results speak for themselves: the shekel collapses, the stock market collapses, state revenues collapse, investments collapse, the budget is disastrous, it has no growth engines, no actions against the cost of living, and so on. A board chairman who would bring this man to his board would be banished with sticks and pitchforks.
If we go through the entire endless list of government ministers, in almost all cases we will reach the same level of suitability for the job. This is the case with Yitzhak Goldknopf, who this week appointed an inexperienced and talented Gur Hassid to project all construction in the south. This is the case of May Golan, who was appointed Minister for the Advancement of the Status of Women; Galit Distal Atabrian, who is in charge of public relations, while inflicting PR disasters on us almost every week; Yariv Levin, who received the justice portfolio with a clear agenda to destroy the judicial system; And we haven't even talked about my uncle Amsalem, who accepted the Atomic Energy Commission, and that corresponds with the Iranian nuclear program and reassures us all. and Eli Cohen, the foreign minister, who carried out a bargaining attack this week in relations with the United States, after a few weeks ago he further collapsed the shekel and the stock exchange when he dealt with the governor of the Bank of Israel.
A loud and mocking shofar. Yaakov Bardugo (Photo: Reuven Castro)
But it's not just the ministers. This gang fails to issue a single proper state appointment for medicine. This week we were informed of Gilad Zwick, a self-propelled propaganda attack that worked hard to pour gallons of gasoline (he must have borrowed them from Smotrich) about what remains of Israeli-American relations over the years, who has been appointed as the prime minister's media advisor. And about Danny Zaken, commissar for the elimination of the free media on Army Radio, who confessed in closed conversations this week that the person who worked for his appointment in the Prime Minister's Office was Yaakov Bardugo, who at the time received an offer for the PR or media portfolio from Netanyahu and refused, fortunately. In the end, however, Shlomo Krei received the media portfolio, who first attacked the Israel Broadcasting Corporation and now the post office, in an effort to oust chairman Mishael Vaknin, who managed to erase NIS 2 billion in losses and turn a profit. Only this story deserves a separate investigation, which is yet to come.
What about Deri? As someone who thought a convicted felon could be allowed to return to the scene of a crime, I feel a certain guilt. Deri was convicted of bribery, served his sentence, returned to the exact same job and was convicted again. Now he is ostensibly outside, but in fact he is stirring up elections for the Chief Rabbinate, canceling, rejecting, mixing as he pleases with one hand, while with the other hand he is organizing (through emissaries) a personal law that will allow his close associate Boaz Yosef to run for the Tiberias municipality in violation of the existing law. What's worst about these events is that no one cares anymore. This is already self-explanatory. It already seems logical.
Sometimes the impression is created that this government employs a particularly sophisticated placement company whose task is simple: to find the least suitable person for every possible position or position, and appoint them to the position. There is no point in bringing the entire list here, from the dark and hateful May Golan as a candidate for consulate in New York, through Yossi Shelly, who was expelled from civil service at the time and later forged a photo with the president of Brazil in which lobster was also photographed, to the position of director general of the Prime Minister's Office, etc., etc. It's no wonder that MK Nissim Vaturi, who also serves as deputy speaker of the Knesset, sees nothing wrong with inviting Likud Center members on a cruise ship and approving entry for Moshe Meron, a member of the "traitor leftists," to the Knesset building, including the MK canteen. The face of the country.
It will not calm down until the damage is complete. Netanyahu and government ministers after the budget is approved, May 24, 2023 (Photo: official website, uncredited)
Netanyahu has not always stuck in this Sahi swamp. He knew other days. Days when his team of intimate advisors included Adv. Yaakov Neeman. Now he consults with attorney Yoram Sheftel (according to the latter's testimony in an interview with Bar Shem-Or). Days when his cabinet included Bogi Ya'alon, Benny Begin, Dan Meridor, Ehud Barak, Yuval Steinitz. Today Goldknopf, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and their friends sit there. The days when he called Bardugo and his friends "criminals surrounding a senior Likud politician" (a.k.a. David Levy), and today the same Bardugo serves as his closest adviser, associate and loudest and most mocking mouthpiece.
We all see the results on the ground. Yesterday, it was reported that the deficit in May doubled, state revenues continue to collapse, and investment continues to decline. No, it is not enough for Netanyahu to understand that it has turned out, to correct course, to announce that the legal coup is being shelved in favor of an in-depth public debate on reforms and the constitution, and to free the country from the vortex to which it was navigated. No, it will not calm down until the damage is complete. There are those who believe that, despite everything, Netanyahu is still a leader with many rights. I tend to think it's mostly multi-debt. If this were possible, the State of Israel would not have to settle for a criminal indictment it filed against him, but should attach to it, as is customary, a civil damages claim equal to the national deficit we will find ourselves in until this turmoil ends.
Met the president, but didn't bother to see Netanyahu. Sam Altman at Tel Aviv University, June 5, 2023 (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Is it any wonder that he walks around like a leper? Sam Altman, considered the father of artificial intelligence, recently visited Israel, met dozens of people, including the president of Israel, but did not bother to see Netanyahu, who made do with a phone call. In order to drown out his insult, Netanyahu hastened to call Elon Musk and dig for him as well, only to be able to tell us later that he would soon establish "think tanks" on the subject of artificial intelligence.
That's how it is. Whoever embraces Ben-Gvir, nurtures Smotrich, appoints Avi Maoz and flirts with Gopstein will walk alone. As for artificial intelligence: Netanyahu should examine the possibility of purchasing decent quantities of these goods, in order to reinforce the minimal intelligence contained by his government.
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