Strategic Minute

Vol. 2. No. 13. March 28, 2023

A Word First

We take a look at a man who’s been in the news nearly every hour in the Middle East -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Forget the heap of criticism coming from Washington, this man is America's best asset in the region.

From on high

"We will not give up on the path for which we were elected."

In wake of his reversal, Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu vows to return to enacting judicial reform.

Focus

Netanyahu announces his withdrawal of judicial reform legislation.

America's Rag Doll

At 73 years old, Binyamin Netanyahu is clearly the most successful politician in Israel's history. He has been prime minister three times, serving more years than even Israel's founder David Ben-Gurion. A large portion of the electorate accepts virtually anything Netanyahu does under the slogan "Only Bibi."

How does he do it? It hasn't been simple, but Netanyahu has managed to maintain stability in an Israel controlled by the United States. His appeal is not to the tiny secular Jewish community, rather the Sephardic and religious majority that grows bigger by the year. To the horror of the secular elite, Netanyahu's constituency wants to get in the driver's seat.

Netanyahu's skill has kept him in power for most of the last 20 years. Through numerous crises, Washington can count on the prime minister to stay faithful to the U.S. position on virtually every subject. Bibi's formula has been to talk the talk of his religious and nationalist constituency while toeing the American line regardless of how shabbily he is treated.

Being There

The transformation of Netanyahu into Washington's most important asset in the Middle East took decades. He lived most of his early life in the United States and was discovered in MIT in the early 1970s as a brilliant orator and quick study. He was recruited by the Boston Consulting Group, a company with close government connections and super-rich clients around the world. The company had groomed other young men for power, including Mitt Romney, who eventually ran for president.

Soon after his stint with BCG, the former Israeli commander remade himself as an expert in counter-terrorism, now touted by the new administration of President Ronald Reagan. From there, his career in Israeli diplomacy and then politics gained race-car speed.

The Americans knew how to reward Netanyahu as well as punish him. When he showed too much independence and hubris in his first term as prime minister, then-President Bill Clinton worked hard for his opponent, who beat Netanyahu in 1999. After taking a break to make millions as a consultant, Netanyahu returned to Israeli politics within three years, first as foreign and then finance minister -- and finally as prime minister in 2009.

Never challenge Washington

In his second tenure, Netanyahu learned his lesson. He would never challenge Washington on any issue with the exception of Iran. And when push came to shove, the prime minister backed down from ordering air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. He agreed to break anti-trust laws to ensure a U.S. monopoly over Israel's new natural gas reserves. He ordered the new Joint Strike Fighter despite overwhelming flaws. He carried out U.S. orders to destroy thousands of Jewish homes deemed illegal while preserving those of Arabs.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, he signed a deal with the U.S. pharma giant Pfizer that Israel would become the laboratory for the company's untested vaccine. He even allowed an American economist who refused to renounce U.S. citizenship to become the governor of the Bank of Israel. The economist, Stanley Fischer, was rewarded on his return to Washington with a job as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve.

His third tenure as prime minister came in the elections of December 2022. Nearly two years earlier, he had again been forced out by a Democratic White House, which helped form a minority government based on a Hamas-aligned faction promised the equivalent of $15.5 billion to join the coalition.

Survival

Since his latest election, Netanyahu has been focused on survival. He has been a defendant in three trials and charged with bribery and fraud -- the first sitting premier in Israeli history to be indicted. He vowed to enact reform that would reduce the power of the Supreme Court in a package that would include a law that a prime minister could not be forced to resign.

The new legislation threatened U.S. interests in that it reduced the power of the Supreme Court and gave greater authority to an elected parliament. Under the package, the Knesset, like the U.S. Congress, would play a leading role in appointing judges. Today, appointments are made by a panel controlled by the justices themselves. Under the bill, the Supreme Court would also be sharply restricted in banning new laws.

Over the last month, the government has worked to pass the reform package. The first bill enacted was that to protect Netanyahu. Once that bill made it through the Knesset, he cooled off on the rest of the judicial reforms. He pointed to the massive American and European aid to the Israeli opposition, which mobilized tens of thousands to block roads, disrupt public transportation, paralyze government as well as the nation's largest international airport. Opposition leaders also threatened civil war and the dismantling of the military.

And so on March 27, Netanyahu announced to the country that he was withdrawing the legislation for at least several months. As if on cue, the White House responded by an invitation to meet President Biden.

In his televised address, the prime minister assured his supporters that he would not abandon the government's agenda. But those who knew and worked with Netanyahu snickered: His entire political career has been based on saying one thing and doing another. The bottom line: He will let the judicial reform package die a quiet death and move on -- in the name of national security, of course.

The result is that America's rag doll survives another day. The day after, of course, remains a question mark.