It would be bad enough if military unity was the only casualty of the rebellion of Israel’s ruling class. But, of course, it isn’t. Moody’s Investor Services didn’t lower Israel’s credit rating, despite massive efforts by Israel’s economic elites to convince the rankings service to do so. And Silicon Valley Bank’s crash demonstrated just how stupid Israel’s high-tech moguls were when they called for Israel’s wealthy leftists to pull their money out of the country.
But statements by the likes of Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron, former prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, current opposition leader Yair Lapid, and dozens of retired generals and other members of the ruling class warning that Israel’s economy isn’t a safe bet and that Israel’s democracy is hanging by a hair did more to advance efforts by Israel’s enemies to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state and mainstream anti-Zionism than any U.N. resolution or any boycott campaign ever could.
One of the most extraordinary aspects of their campaign to overthrow the government through insurrection and demonization is its international bent. In the past three months, Lapid, Barak, Olmert, Livni, Ya’alon and their powerful comrades have turned to Washington and other foreign capitals to convince them to boycott Israel. Last week, Lapid flew to New York and met with American Jewish leaders to mobilize them against the only democratically elected Jewish leadership in the world: the Netanyahu government. Lapid met with powerful lawmakers to draft them into the service of overthrowing the government. Three weeks ago, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called publicly for foreign governments to boycott the Israeli government.
This week, Ya’alon met with visiting Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. His goal was self-evident. The former hardline Likud minister who in recent years has undergone an ideological makeover and joined the radical left insisted three years ago that governing coalitions comprised of terror-supporting Arab Knesset factions are preferable to governments with Netanyahu and Likud. In recent months, like fellow former chiefs of general staff Barak and Dan Halutz, Ya’alon has called for soldiers and police to disobey lawful orders. In the context of his current positions, the only possible explanation for his meeting with Graham was that he and his comrades now seek to convince Republicans to hate Netanyahu and his voters as much as Ya’alon and his new friends hate them.
