The Washington Post (WaPo) just published one of the most damning pieces yet about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu. Titled “Netanyahu and Hamas depended on each other. Both may be on the way out”, it cites Israeli experts who argue that Bibi had a years-long Faustian bargain with Hamas, which is implied to have contributed to that group’s sneak attack on 7 October. In other words, his tacit arrangement with them played a role in the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust.
Some of those who don’t rely on the MSM for their information had already arrived at that conclusion, but this is the first time that an outlet of WaPo’s standing in the West reported on this, which served to normalize popular discussion about it. Agenda-driven gatekeepers had hitherto accused anyone who suggested as much of “peddling anti-Semitic conspiracy theories”, but those smears don’t stand up to scrutiny when it comes to WaPo’s reporting, which cites Israeli experts themselves.
They claimed that Bibi relied on Hamas to divide the Palestinian cause and thus serve as the ‘publicly plausible’ pretext for Israel’s refusal to make progress on a two-state solution. As proof of this, those experts reminded everyone that his government “agreed to periodic prisoner releases, the transfer of money from Qatar to pay public salaries in Gaza, improve infrastructure and, critics say, fund Hamas military operations.” In exchange, Hamas was able to continue ruling Gaza, which served their interests.
This Faustian bargain held for over a decade, during which time “hopes grew that the group was evolving into a more reliable governing body focused on building Gaza instead of all-out war. Netanyahu was not alone in seeing benefits in the situation. Israeli moderates began to envision a future beside a stabilizing Gaza with a better standard of living. Businesses hailed Israel’s improving relations with Arab neighbors willing to forge stronger ties with the Jewish state.”
Simply put, Israelis across the political spectrum were duped by the protracted status quo into believing that Hamas wouldn’t betray Bibi since their objective interests were also served by perpetuating this arrangement, which is why they were truly shocked when the group carried out its sneak attack. In the aftermath of that infamous incident, WaPo claims that public sentiment has turned against both him and Hamas, thus endangering their holds on power that inspired this Faustian bargain in the first place.
Their report accurately reflects reality as it objectively exists, but there’s no denying how unexpected it was for a MSM outlet of WaPo’s repute in the West to publish a piece that’s so damning to the Israeli leader, especially considering that the credible observations shared therein had been taboo for years. Their article therefore amounts to a narrative milestone that revolutionizes the public’s discourse about the relationship between Israel and Hamas prior to 7 October.
The gatekeepers were caught off guard by this since few could have foreseen what WaPo would do, but it was actually somewhat predictable if one recalls that outlet’s relationship with the US’ ruling Democrats and remembers their support for the anti-government protests in Israel earlier this year. It was assessed in late March that “The US-Backed Color Revolution In Israel Just Reached Crisis Proportions” after the Biden Administration doubled down on its pressure campaign against Bibi.
Casual observers might scoff at the notion that the US would ever play a role in destabilizing any Israeli government, but those who hold these views are unaware of the tensions between Biden’s liberal–globalist government and Bibi’s conservative-nationalist one. In brief, the Democrats despise their Israeli counterparts for ideological reasons and also want to punish them for refusing to comply with the West’s anti-Russian sanctions, not to mention continuing to coordinate with Russia in Syria.
To be sure, the interim liberal-globalist government between Bibi’s last two tenures also didn’t comply with those sanctions nor curtail their cooperation with Russia in Syria, but they were still regarded by the Biden Administration as much more politically reliable on all other matters. The Democrats would naturally prefer for them to return to power, hence the Color Revolution that they helped orchestrate against Bibi’s conservative-nationalist government earlier this year.
For as much as they wanted to replace him, however, there were certain limits to how far they’d go out of fear that crossing unspoken red lines would risk discrediting the Israeli state in general. That explains why they kept the topic of his Faustian bargain with Hamas taboo until after 7 October since the aforementioned interim liberal-globalist government continued this same policy during their rule. These reservations are no longer a factor though since that group’s sneak attack happened during his tenure.
Israelis themselves are already talking about what mistaken policies led up to that so the Democrats no longer felt that there was any reason to keep it taboo, especially since this emotive issue could easily be weaponized by their perception managers to further stoke sentiment against him. Bibi’s many years in power mean that average voters are more likely to blame him for this policy than the interim liberal-globalist government and accordingly seek to punish him at the next polls.
In order to maximize the chances of that happening, the decision was made by the Democrats’ WaPo allies – whether on their own by tacitly understanding the shared goal being pursued or with a nudge from that party – to let the cat out of the bag and finally break the taboo on discussing this. The purpose is for Israelis to hold him personally accountable for the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust, which could end his political career and lead to the removal of his conservative-nationalist government.
Basically, the Democrats saw an unprecedented opportunity to do away with Bibi and everything that he represents for good, which is why they took it even at the risk that breaking the taboo on discussing the relationship between Israel and Hamas before 7 October could discredit the self-professed Jewish State. WaPo’s journalistic service was therefore driven by ulterior regime change motives, though all things considered, it’s better that this taboo was finally broken instead of continuing to be aggressively upheld.
