Israel’s bitter political divisions have subsided over the past several days, as the country has united behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his successful surprise attack against the Iranian regime.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu’s office published photos of the prime minister meeting with opposition leader Yair Lapid, who has been vehemently opposed to the incumbent Israeli government.
In an op-ed on Sunday in the Jerusalem Post, Lapid wrote:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is my political rival, but his decision to strike Iran at this moment in time is the right one. The whole country is united in this moment, when faced with an enemy sworn to our destruction, nothing will divide us.
We went to war for the only reason that justifies war – we had no choice. A nuclear Iran would have been an existential threat to the State of Israel. Iran cannot be a nuclear state. Not now. Not ever.
Just one week ago, Netanyahu’s coalition was in danger of falling apart over the issue of ultra-Orthodox soldiers being drafted into the military. (U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee mediated an end to that crisis.)
There was a similar moment of unity last September, after Israel launched a successful “pager” attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon that led to the rapid disintegration of the terror organization’s command structure.
In previous years, Netanyahu’s opponents alternated between saying he was not doing enough for peace, and saying that he lacked the courage to go to war. On the latter point, at least, the historical verdict is now clear.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
