From all quarters, we hear this constant refrain: If Benjamin Netanyahu were not afraid of a prison term, he would make immediate peace with Hamas and the other enemies of Israel. He is only prolonging the present war, the longest one his country has ever been in, by the way, in order to ward off a jail sentence.
For example, states Haaretz, eloquently, "Trying to keep his butt out of jail…"
According to Ron Unz, "So he recognized that once his retaliatory war ended and peace was reestablished, he would almost certainly be driven from office; and with numerous serious corruption charges hanging over his head, he would probably end his life in a prison cell."
In the view of the American Prospect, "Bibi's Mideast Solution: Unending War. It puts Israel in greater peril, but it may just keep him in power –and out of the clink."
Claims Reddit, "Netanyahu is a self-serving crook dragging out the war to stay in power so he can avoid jail time."
The Democracy Labs offers this gem, "What's behind Netanyahu's war? Follow his criminal indictments!"
This is not mere nonsense. It is nonsense on stilts. This claim is dead from the neck up. How long can he possibly prolong the war? Another few months? A year? Far more likely it will end, hopefully with a full victory, even sooner than that. What good would it do him to stay out of prison for just that short period of a time, and tick off his many enemies by so doing? Even if he were inclined in this direction, this is a no brainer. The sheer mathematics of the situation simply do not compute.
Do those who are launching this scurrilous, nasty, insulting, scandalous, scandalous, outrageous, defamatory, vicious, unwarranted attack upon him have even a shred of evidence to support their claim? To ask this is to answer it: of course not. In football, you are not allowed to "pile on." In this realm of human existence, all bets are off.
What is Netanyahu accused of, anyway? He has been indicted for breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud. Even if he were found guilty of all such charges, it is beyond belief that a jury of his peers would sentence him to the hoosegow.
Where is it written, by the way, that the supposed fear of imprisonment encourages him to take a harsher line against Hamas? Why is it a presumed given that his so-called fear of being a jailbird inclines him in the direction of insisting upon completely conquering Israel's brutal, genocidal enemies? Perhaps it is moving him in the direction of a softer approach. Who is to say it is not the case that if he did not have this (unproven) fear, he would escalate far more strongly? Perhaps he would use his nuclear arsenal not against Hamas, or Lebanon, they are too close, but with regard to Iran, the Houthis and some even further afield. The point is, these critics of the Prime Minister of Israel do not have a logical or empirical leg to stand upon.
But let us stipulate, arguendo, the case made by the critics. Israel would be better off if ceased fire and sued for peace right away. Then they would their hostages freed forthwith, in return for guaranteed safety for the perpetrators of Oct. 7, pretty much emptying Israeli prisoners of all Palestinian prisoners, and thus rendering it far more likely a repeat, several repeats of that horrid day, and the end of his country.
If that is indeed the view of these many critics, and it is more than passing difficult to attribute to them anything else, why, then, do they not issue in advance a pardon for Benjamin Netanyahu? Then, presumably, he would do their bidding. There is precedent for this sort of thing: Ford pardoned Nixon. Surely, the Israeli legal system would be able to emulate the US in this regard. The fact that none of these critics ever made any such offer indicates that they themselves do not really believe the truth of these unfounded charges.
