Netanyahu’s message
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave President Obama a gift, a copy of “Megillah of Esther,” a scroll that recounts the heroics of Queen Esther in ancient Persia.
The scroll tells the story of the beautiful Esther and her cousin, the wise Mordechai, and how they plot — successfully — to keep the evil vizier Haman from murdering Persia’s Jews.
The prime minister of Israel is many things, but subtle is not one of them. The message is: Whenthe Jews see a murder- ous conspiracy forming against them, they will act to disrupt the plot. Afurther refinement of the message is: When the Jews see a plot forming against them in Persia, they will act to disrupt the plot, even if Barack Obama wishes that they would wait for permission.
Before the summit between the two leaders, I thought Netanyahu would probably agree to delay an Israeli attack against Iran’s nuclear program in order to let the sanctions imposed by Obama work to convince Tehran that the nuclear path is a foolish one. But watching Netan-
yahu’s actions this week, and listening to his rhetoric, particularly before the annual meeting of the lobbying group AIPAC, I’m more convinced that his timetable for action against Iran doesn’t align at all with Obama’s.
Shortly before Netanyahu took office three years ago, I sat with him in the Knesset and asked him to describe the Iranian threat. He described the regime in the harshest terms possible, as a “messianic apocalyptic cult” bent on the destruction of Israel. He was not at all shy about comparing Iran’s leaders to the Nazis.
Earlier last week, Netanyahu once again made an explicit comparison with the Jewish condition during World War II. This time, he made it somewhat differently: “My friends, this is not 1944,” he told AIPAC. “Today we have a state of our own. The purpose of the Jewish state is to secure the Jewish future. That is why Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, against any threat.”
There are only two possible interpretations of Netanyahu’s words and deeds: Either he is the world’s greatest bluffer, or he has set himself on a course to prevent a second Holocaust.
I hope Obama understands that, with Netanyahu, the Megillah was the message.
Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg