The end of the Netanyahu
era
With elections coming up in Israel...again and the possibility of the end of the Netanyahu era; it is right to reflect on his enormous foot print and legacy that he has imprinted on Israel. I have been a shocked at the attacks on Bibi.
He has served no more than seven terms in office; one hell of an amazing feat considering how volatile Israeli politics is. Governments are toppled and new ones are formed only for them to be toppled again as is the case now.
But Benyamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu has done more for his country and the region than many premiers before him, barring perhaps Menachem Begin who signed the Camp David Peace Accords with Egypt in 1979.
Netanyahu has been
described as "the advocate of the free-market".
As Prime Minister in his first term, he significantly reformed the banking sector, removing barriers to investment abroad, mandatory purchases of government securities and direct credit. Netanyahu introduced a major overhaul of the Israeli economy. He introduced a welfare to work program, he led a program of privatization, reduced the size of the public sector, reformed and streamlined the taxation system and passed laws against monopolies and cartels with the aim of increasing competition. Netanyahu extended capital gains taxes from companies to individuals, which allowed him to enlarge the tax base while reducing taxes on incomes. As the Israeli economy started booming and unemployment fell significantly, Netanyahu was widely credited by commentators as having performed an 'economic miracle' by the end of his tenure. Direct investment in the Israeli economy had increased by an annualized 380%. On the other hand, his critics have labelled his economic views as Margaret Thatcher-inspired "popular capitalism".
After the frosty relations between Washington and Jerusalem; Bibi laid the foundations for the incredible peace process throughout the Middle East and Africa with Muslim and Arab neighbours eager to normalize relations with Israel, ready to work together. Along with the Trump administration; those have now born fruit and most of Israel’s neighbours have or are in the process of normalizing diplomatic relations with their Jewish neighbour for the first time in 73 years.
While on a tour of East Africa to foster relations with those countries, he visited the famous Entebbe Airport where his younger brother Yonatan Netanyahu was shot by Ugandan troops while Israeli commandos were freeing Israeli-Jewish hostages from the hijacked Air France flight in 1976.
On security matters; he took a hard-line and refused to negotiate with the PLO and Mahmoud Abbas while terror was being launched from Judea & Samaria and the Gaza Strip. When it came to stopping terror Bibi was at the forefront of exposing the secret network of tunnels built by Hamas to smuggle rockets and other explosive material from Egypt into Gaza. Thanks to Bibi and the work of the renowned Mossad (Israel’s famed secret service) brought to the world’s attention; Iran’s Nuclear missile program.
I have always been a great supporter of Benyamin Netanyahu, but after 14½, it is perhaps time for him to step down and pass the baton onto the next generation.
I hope and pray that the new incoming administration in Washington will continue the great work being done in the Middle East, continue to isolate the Iranian’s and put pressure on the PLO to renounce their armed struggle against Israel, destroy their terror networks, destroy their weapons and bombs and publicly declare in Arabic Israel’s ‘Right to Exist Within Defensible Borders’, to renounce their claim over east Jerusalem, erase all anti-Israel propaganda and remove anti-Israel curriculum from their education system and come to the negotiating table ready to talk real long lasting peace.
If they truly want to live side by side with the Israeli’s they will have to severe relations with Turkey and Iran and publicly declare in Arabic their willingness to move forward without any violence and hatred and allow Israel to build homes with the areas designated to Israel in the Oslo Peace Accords and the Washington Declaration of Principles.
It is now time for the
"Palestinians" to play their hand. Israel has done enough and given
up to much only to be rewarded with bloodshed and violence.
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