I wish Bibi success but did he have to plagiarize Bennett?

After all, Bibi’s success is OUR success.

In a Facebook post, I accused Netanyahu of hypocrisy because of one part of what he said in his excellent Rabin Memorial Day speech at the Knesset, I want to respond here to a challenge to that post in the comments below it. First, the quote that shows what I am referring to (begins at 2:40 in the Hebrew video below this article), when Bibi says:

After the elections, after the dust has settled on the fighting between the camps, we need to get out of the foxhole and know how to work together. Differences of opinion will not disappear, and that is fine. On a number of issues we have sharp debate which we also have to manage responsibly and tactfully. Ideological confrontation is at the foundations of democracy. We are allowed to argue; we do not have to agree on everything. On the contrary — and I want to point this out here most emphatically — we need to know where to agree, where most of us do agree. I believe that there are core issues upon which we have achieved national consensus over the past years.

Comment: So nice of you to point out Bibi’s hypocricy but not even a single word on Bennett’s fraud when it hit us at150 mph in our face.

My answer:
Because I did not see Bennett frauding anyone. Did Bennett not say, back then when the Bennett-Lapid coalition was sworn in, that he was keeping his promise of no 5th election and doing it because he saw an opportunity to tackle the chaos resulting from four elections that changed nothing and to do that by people from across the political spectrum working TOGETHER, for the greater good, on domestic issues and setting aside for the time being their different ideologies?

The fact that so many saw the one promise he kept as a betrayal — as if the purpose of unity in dealing with issues on which everyone agreed needing tending to — in my opinion, shows that some people take talk over substance.

Bennett said there will be time, after we have a budget, after we tackle Arab-on-Arab violence, after we tackle agricultural theft in the Negev, after getting political activism out of the courts, after breaking the Haredi monopoly on religious infrastructures, to return to the other issues upon which we do not agree. And after taking care of these urgent issues, he suggested, tackling the ones on which we disagree should be achievable with less animosity.

And Bibi acted abominably — boycotting committees, voting AGAINST his stated policies — in order to bring down (one of) his arch-enemy(ies).

I call it hypocrisy for him to use Bennett’s words when he did exactly the opposite and when he is now expecting us to do what he did not  do. As if the idea of working with our agreements even though disagreements remain was his own, Bibi’s own, original idea. When did he ever say anything like that in the past?

Bibi is a master orator. He is a master diplomat. He sweeps people away when he speaks — for better (in this case) and for worse (when he engages in hate speech which he undeniably has). Surely he could have been more creative here in asking for cooperation than by plagiarizing Bennett’s words.

At the same time as I express this criticism, I still hope he does what needs to be done for the good of the nation. I am not wishing for his failure I am hoping for his success because his success is our success. I don’t have to like him or respect him to hope he delivers what the right-wing who brought him back to the PM seat brought him back for.

And I hope we can all be united behind that.

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Bibi’s full speech at the Rabin Memorial Day session (Hebrew).

Feature Image: Screenshot from Facebook post of the speech.