Rising Like a Lion
Israeli historian and author Gadi Taub recognizes that the State of Israel is under attack—outside the nation and from within it. The Israelis elected Benjamin Netanyahu largely to defend them from Islamic terrorists and regimes that are vowing to wipe Israel off the map. But bureaucrats deeply entrenched in Israel’s government are systematically undermining him and his Likud party. Israel’s Labor Party and those who support it are committed to appeasing the Islamists, not fighting them.
Taub wrote a powerful editorial on the situation in March titled “Netanyahu Takes on Israel’s Deep State.” He highlighted Prime Minister Netanyahu’s herculean efforts to defend his country not just from outside threats, but from its own rogue bureaucracy.
During my recent trip to Israel, Israeli-American journalist Caroline Glick introduced me to Gadi, who graciously agreed to a 40-minute interview on the Trumpet Daily. Gadi explained that he studied American history at Rutgers University in the United States. This gave him keen insight into the Israeli “deep state.” He understands the U.S. Constitution isn’t just a political document, but a treatise on human nature showing how human government should work as a fundamental principle.
“I think I came back with a lot of insights helpful about the context here and got a job in academia,” Gadi explained. “Israel’s elite has become hostile to democracy, and like other elites, only more so, entrenched itself in a bureaucracy, in the judiciary, and in the army.”
Gadi has even likened Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s domestic security service, to former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation chief James Comey. Both figures used their countries’ security services to frame a democratically elected head of state. “It’s the deep state versus democratic politics,” Gadi told me. “And in a sense, it’s exactly the story in America, right?” It’s Trump, he said who is “the American working-class hero.”
A lot of this story is very personal for Gadi, whose father was a Labor Party bureaucrat who was fired when Likud took power. Yet he notes that his father was an exception. For the most part, the Likud Party let Labor Party bureaucrats keep their jobs. So now the political party leading Israel’s bureaucracy is different from the party leading Israel’s Knesset. This is particularly concerning because the Israeli judiciary has basically granted the attorney general veto power over government policy since the attorney general is also the legal counsel for the executive. “His advice is obligatory, according to the Supreme Court, so you cannot disobey your legal counsel,” Gadi said. “So you basically have an unelected single official who can veto government policy and also indict the prime minister and the ministers.”
Like President Donald Trump, however, Prime Minister Netanyahu is willing to fight for his nation. Gadi knows Netanyahu personally. He interviewed him on his podcast earlier this year and went on a walk with him recently after the prime minister made it a goal to get more exercise. When I asked Gadi about Netanyahu’s courage, he noted that “his willpower is unbelievable against external forces and against internal forces.”
“One of his many enemies once told me, ‘You know, Netanyahu, when he shaves in the morning, he thinks he sees Moses in the mirror. It’s his job to lead the people of Israel across the Red Sea,’” Gadi recollected. “He said this derogatively. But I don’t think Netanyahu thinks about this as a caricature. He truly thinks that the Jewish people, as always, are in existential danger. And it’s now up to him. It’s on his shoulders now to carry them to safety across this abyss. He has been warning about Iran’s nuclear program for 40 years now.”
Gadi praised Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, as well as President Trump’s decision to drop “bunker buster” bombs on Fordow and Natanz. The deep states of both Israel and America opposed this action, but Netanyahu and Trump worked together to avert a nuclear war.
“It humbled Iran and what we need to strive for is a situation as close as we can to that in in Lebanon,” Gadi said. “We should make it clear that all this will happen again if you start your nuclear program again. … I’ve had a lot of chats with bouncers …. If you’re a bouncer and someone touches you, you can’t arrest them. You have to teach them a lesson in such a way that you make an example of them for everyone else. … If you smack him on the face, you hurt his ego and he’ll come back with five friends. If you break his knee, he will have a few months in rehab in the hospital in order to consider if he wants to mess with you again. So the wisdom of bouncers is also the wisdom of statesman in the Middle East. I think Trump and Netanyahu share the belief that deterrence is the key to lasting … nonbelligerence.”
Just as our interview ended, Gadi stressed that “Iran is the problem, not the solution,” that we “need to bypass the Palestinian veto over Arab-Israeli negotiations,” and that we “need a credible threat of force in the region.” A lot of people will consider these statements inflammatory, but he still stressed, “When there’s a peacenik in the White House, there will be war.” He has a real lionlike, warrior spirit that gets things done.
My father, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry, wrote in his 2008 article “Israel: When the Miracle Victories Ended,” “The Jewish nation was born and sustained by godly miracles. But it still refuses to trust God! Its leaders have more faith in terrorists!” Of course, this statement was written before Netanyahu returned to office and doesn’t necessarily apply to the Netanyahu administration. Yet, as Gadi pointed out, the Netanyahu administration is being undermined by deep state bureaucrats who definitely have more faith in their ability to negotiate with terrorists than they have in God’s ability to grant Israel miracle victories.
Courageous, lionlike leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Taub are God’s instruments to ensure the Jewish people survive until the day when the 12 tribes are regathered under the Messiah’s rule. They are also God’s instruments to teach people powerful lessons about what it takes to overcome evil. Defeating evil cannot be done through negotiation, nor can it be done with a simple smack on the face. It takes “the wisdom of bouncers” to defeat evil. It must be completely incapacitated to the point where it will not return.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump have not incapacitated Hamas or the Iranian mullahs. So these radical Islamists will return to kill more people. But the bold actions Netanyahu and Trump have taken to protect Israel have been far more effective than anything the peaceniks wanted to try. The “rising lion” of Israel continues his fight.