Why Benjamin Netanyahu Is About to Make History
Prime Minister Netanyahu has made history this week by reaching a milestone of 4,876 days in office, surpassing the longest holding of office by Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion.
With what he has accomplished for the state of Israel through his economic, innovative, security policies and cooperation (T.T.P.),has transformed Israel’s global brand from one that Israel had to sell to succeed, to a country that everyone wants to buy from.
I know firsthand what Muslim leaders in the Middle East are saying, from Egyptian President Sisi to Jordan’s King Abdullah, from the Crown of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salam and to the Crown Prince of the UAE Mohamed bin Zayed. I’m hearing statements such as, “I really respect him,” I work closely with him,” “I want to thank him” or even “I want to come to Jerusalem.” Who could have imagined a day when an Israeli prime minister could break through with such barriers? Netanyahu’s legacy could very well lead to peace between five or six Gulf States and Israel.
One can also look at the astonishing breakthroughs that have come from the Israel-U.S. partnership in the past three years: the recognition of Jerusalem, the moving of the embassy, the closing down of the PLO offices in D.C., the Taylor Force Act and the recognition of the Golan Heights’ status. One must ask the question, would each of these landmark policies have happened without the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?
I know firsthand of the tremendous bond between U.S. President Donald Trump and Netanyahu. I am aware of what unites the evangelicals, and I serve on the evangelical leadership team, a group that supported Trump all the way to the U.S. presidency. In addition, as the founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center I represent 62 evangelicals. Without evangelical support, Donald Trump would not have been elected. One of the major reasons they voted for him was because of his unwavering support for Israel.
Benjamin Netanyahu, like his father, does not have the need to be liked. He is driven by his pragmatic-Churchill like mission, similar to President Donald Trump, despite the fact they are both demonized by the political left.
John Steinbeck’s poem “the Dangerous Difference” says it all:
After a while you’ll think no thought the others do not think. You’ll know: no word the others can’t say. And you’ll do things because the others do them. You’ll feel the danger in any difference whatever—a danger to the crowd of like-thinking, like-acting men. … Once in a while, there is a man who won’t do what is demanded of him, and do you know what happens? The whole machine devotes itself coldly to the destruction of his difference. They’ll beat your spirit and your nerves, your body and your mind, with iron rods until the dangerous difference goes out of you. And if you can’t finally give in, they’ll vomit you up and leave you stinking outside–neither part of themselves, nor yet free…. They only do it to protect themselves. A thing so triumphantly illogical, so beautifully senseless as an army can’t allow a question to weaken it.”
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Mike Evans is a No. 1 New York Times’ best-selling author with 95 published books. He is the founder of Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, of which the late Shimon Peres, Israel’s ninth president, was the chair. This article originally appeared on The Jerusalem Post. Reprinted with permission.
