Great Melanie Phillips Column Re: Israel & the US

I feel the same way, so I applauded Melanie Phillips' column today titled Herzog’s lamentable performance; Israel needs to deliver an entirely different message to its two-faced US ally.

Some excerpts:

"When it came down to it, Herzog failed in his most important task. In the continuing furore over Israel’s judicial reforms, with the Biden administration outrageously telling the Israeli government to abandon its policy and snubbing Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by failing to invite him to the White House, Herzog needed to avoid being played off against the prime minister. He needed to demonstrate there wasn’t so much as a cigarette paper between them..

"But he didn’t do that. Instead, he spun the 'heated and painful debate' over judicial reform as 'the clearest tribute to the fortitude of Israel’s democracy'.

"Is that really how Israel’s president sees the mass disruption to public life resulting from the demonstrations, not to mention the protesters’ intimidation and harassment of government ministers? Is that really how he sees the outrageous threats and blackmail by IDF reservists that they will refuse to answer the call to defend their country unless the judicial reforms are abandoned?

"Herzog should have told Congress the truth: a sustained attempt is being made to destroy Israeli democracy, using street power to bring down a democratically elected government, ostensibly because the protesters disagree with a platform on which the government was elected.

"He should have told Congress that the judicial reform package has been wildly misrepresented and distorted by its opponents. Above all, he should have said the government under Netanyahu is united and should be supported.

"Herzog said none of these things. Instead, he brought Congress to its feet through  emotional bromides, extolling the US as 'our greatest partner and friend' and purring about 'how deeply our stories complement each other’s'.

"True, he incorporated a couple of subtle rebukes. He drew attention to the two-way nature of the alliance with America 'in which Israel has been making critical contributions to the national security and interests of the United States in numerous ways'.

"Apparently alluding to the continuing US funding of the Palestinian Authority, despite its refusal to abandon its 'pay-for-slay' rewards to terrorists and their families, Herzog said: 'It should be clear that one cannot talk about peace while condoning or legitimising terror, implicitly or explicitly..'.

"Few would have noticed these downplayed remarks. Herzog blew his one opportunity to alert the American people to the malice and aggression being displayed towards Israel by the Biden administration. Instead, he created the impression that relations between Israel and the US couldn’t be better."