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| Click above for the video |
- Above, translated orally by Yishai Fleisher
- The same speech above, but with subtitles. By Aryeh Weinstein
Bibi made this great speech to Israelis where he said “I did this, I did that.. “ and pissed most of us off.. it was “we”.. plans for this have taken years and involved the best of Israeli’s and he wants to take the glory.. and the irony is he couldn’t say “I failed Oct 7th”, or even, we failed.. and now he’s tanking the economy ..
Assuming we're talking of the same speech -- the one above, and I can't find any other than the one above, recently, that is a Netanyahu "speech to Israelis" — then I don’t see that at all. I disagree, Occasional Readers!
I have looked at both versions above, one with spoken translation and one with the subtitles. I see nothing of the “I did this, I did that..". Indeed, I see quite the opposite.
The first two sentences of the speech above are: “The one who rises to kill you — rose and kill him first.” This, apparently, is an ancient Jewish saying. And then, second sentence: “The State of Israel has eliminated the arch terrorist Hassan Nasrallah.”
All I see is Bibi saying "We". Towards the end of the speech he gives and specific, clear, tribute to all the people that made it happen -- from the beeper attacks to the successful elimination of Hassan Nasrallah:
"I would like to thank the IDF, the Air Force, IDF Intelligence, the Mossad and the ISA, for the great achievements, and not just yesterday". Clip here.
It is a gross misrepresentation, a disgraceful distortion to claim that Bibi said “I did this. I did that”, when the fact is the exact opposite. It’s all “We” and no “I”. Is this some kind of Bibi Derangement Syndrome?
If I were Israeli, I would thank whatever God I believed in, that we have a man, a leader, like Benjamn Netanyahu. A true leader for the times. The Lion of Israel. The true leader of the free world (see his UN speech). He has borne the slings and arrows of constant criticism, from inside Israel and from the feckless, inconstant, weak, domestic-politics-driven Biden administration, most of it unfair, and yet come out on top, in what was by any measure a gutsy call -- to kill the head of Hezbollah. A leader's call.
They don't deserve a hero, the Lion of Israel, those self-described “secular, liberal, cosmopolitan” Israelis who were so "pissed off". I feel like saying shame on them, but better not. That would be too rude.
As for the "failure on October 7th", my understanding is that it was a failure of Army Intelligence, not of Mossad, and not so much a failure of the intelligence itself, as a failure of the political leaders to take warnings seriously. They had warnings, but didn't believe them. Like happened before the Yom Kippur war. And my understanding is that the failure to take note of the warnings was by the Left in the Knesset — the “Gazans are peaceable” brigade — not of Likud. That may be wrong, or it may be right. In any case, to blame Netanyahu, with no sound evidence, simply because he was the PM, is obviously a form of "Blame everything on Bibi". Again “Bibi Derangement Syndrome"?
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Some random questions:
(From here and there)
- Will the huge setback that Hezbollah has suffered, as the key proxy of Iran, mean that Iran is forced to speed up its nuclear program?
- If so, and given that the nuclear program was to be protected by Hezbollah, which is decimated, does that mean that Israel can more safely fly missions to Iran to knock out the nuclear facilities?
- Will the huge setback that Hezbollah has suffered, as the key proxy of Iran, mean that Iran is forced into the arms of Turkey?
- Will the huge setback that Hezbollah has suffered, as the key proxy of Iran, mean that Iran is forced into the arms of Russia or China?
- Is the world a safer or less safe place as a result of the last few weeks' of Israeli actions against the Jihadi Borg? My own view: we are more safe. Even as some of the questions above are unanswered, to date.
Some random notes:
The IAF, the Israel Air Force, is now in charge of the Beirut airport. It is refusing landing of Iranian flights.
Israel is also telling ships coming from Iran and Turkey that they can't dock in the Port of Beirut. Thought not clear to me how they're enforcing that order. Makes sense, though.
The 30% of Lebanese who are Sunni Muslims and the 30% of Lebanese who are Christians in Lebanon are celebrating the death of the world's King Murderer, Hassan Nasrallah. They're all celebrating, together with Muslims in Iraq, Iran and Syria. Even Saudi Arabia is on side with what Israel has done.
