An Open Letter to Bibi and Yemina

by Jason Gold

Dear Bibi:

I owe you an apology. It's been a while since the last time I did this and while I might not be your biggest fan, I have come to see that some assumptions I have had about you were incorrect.

Yes, you can be dictatorial and heavy handed. Yes, you have a penchant for getting yourself into situations where the optics are terrible. Yes, you crave absolute control (I'm sure you would call it "discipline in the ranks"). Yes, there are times when no one can really be sure whether you are putting Israel first or Bibi first. Yes, I often accused you of having a 12 hour planning horizon just like your predecessors. And yes, It is also clear you inspire visceral hatred in political opponents ala Trump to the point that they would burn the country down to get rid of you as we saw in Lapid and Yaalon's acquiescence to the Arab party.

However, your eight years of being able to dance between the raindrops in dealing with the malignant Jew-hater Obama and now forging a relationship with Trump has convinced me that:

• You know how to play the long game
• You are capable of putting Israel's needs in front of your own or at least slightly ahead.
• You are a politician par excellence, something another person I was enamored with once, will never be.

What convinced me? Maybe it was hearing you in interviews during the pandemic advocating for people to pray as well as reports that you were/are putting on Tefilin and davening. But the fact that you were able to pull a rabbit out of a hat with Benny Gantz (who obviously saw what a potential disaster was brewing with Blue & White's deal with the terrorists) and form a government on the third shot also tells me something. It tells me perhaps you do have "Hashgacha Pratis"/divine protection and that perhaps those reports of mekubalim who say you will be the last PM of Israel before turning over the keys to the Davidic dynasty, have some teeth after all. Just do me a favor and consider the following:

1. Keep Sara in a box.
2. Get someone who knows epidemiology/infectious disease policy, not the hacks you currently have. Israel and Sweden made mistakes at the opposite end of the herd immunity spectrum. Sweden kept things wide open but did not isolate the most at risk population while allowing herd immunity to build up, which was a disaster. You on the other hand, shut in everyone like bubble people and then opened it up. What did you think was going to happen? Of course cases are going to spike but worse because instead of isolating the sick and high-risk (the definition of quarantine) you shoved everyone together so no herd immunity could build. Like I said, get a health policy person who know who they're doing. 
3. Stop calling it "annexation". It's not. It's extension of sovereignty. You don't annex your own land. Again you prove Israel is a disaster when it comes to PR.

Otherwise, stay tough and in the words of Margaret Thatcher, don't go wobbly.

Dear Yemina (Shaked, Bennett, et al)

Sit down, shut up and take the deal. Do you really think the PA will agree to a demilitarized state? Do you really think that if they do, it will mean as much on paper as Oslo did? Do you not think Trump knows exactly who he is dealing with which is why he has been destroying the PA in phases for the last three years? How much convincing do you need that Israel is a priority for Trump? If the embassy move wasn't enough, how about his neutering of the ICC last week?

Four years is a long way away for them to get their state. There isn't a chance in hell that they will be able to curb their blood lust and behave long enough for them to do get it and even if they somehow manage curb the terror and get it, there is no way they will be satisfied with what they have and again, any agreements will be null and void. Even one of your leading rabbi's, HaRav Melamed, all but says to give it a shot with some negotiation. Trump is a business man. When you negotiate a deal with someone like him, he expects pushback. So push back. Refine it, hondle. You know the Arabs will, so you need to. Learn from Bibi.  Play the long game.

It is becoming clear that Israel is or has already become the dominant superpower in the region and many of the Arab countries are beginning to recognize it and openly advocate for increased ties between their countries. Whether they have recognized the inevitability of Israel's continued existence, and/or are concerned about their own self-preservation against Iran, they as well as many of the Arabs living in Israel, know whom they are better off being in bed with. 

Stop whining. Take the deal.