Michael Oren: How Does Bibi Survive?
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a joint press conference with the U.S. secretary of state at his office in Jerusalem. (Evelyn Hockstein/AFP via Getty Images)
If I have learned one thing in my time in political life it is this: Never bet against Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
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The perennial eulogists of Benjamin Netanyahu’s career are having a banner week.
Though it lacks a constitution, Israel stands on the brink of what might otherwise be called a constitutional crisis sparked by Netanyahu’s firing of Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet national security agency—Israel’s equivalent to the FBI. The government has also begun the process of ousting Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. Both she and Bar stand accused of unreasonably opposing the government’s decisions and of representing a left-wing “deep state.” Bar, in response, has charged Netanyahu with acting not in the state’s interests but out of political and personal considerations.
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