I am feeling poorly today, so posting may be light. I do my best.
I know that the name “Netanyahu” is synonymous for “Satan” in most people’s minds, and he’s often completely dismissed or ignored. Douglas Murray, too, is often dismissed as being too conservative or xenophobic. But you’d be missing out if you didn’t at least watch this new 32-minute video of Murray interviewing the Israeli Prime Minister. It’s entirely about the war, and Murray doesn’t refrain from asking hard questions, like what responsibility Netanyahu bears for the October 7 attacks, what he thinks of all the Israelis who dislike him, and so on.
But I found most of it enlightening, especially on the topics of Gaza, Qatar and Iran. The Prime Minister pulls no punches about Gaza, insisting that there is no solution beyond “total victory” over Hamas, and that victory will have a huge effect on deterring other countries in the region, including Iran. After watching this, I’m convinced that Netanyahu will not accept any kind of ceasefire.
As for “what about afterwards?”, Netanyahu says that Israel will supervise Gaza when hostilities end, though I don’t know how that would work or would go down with the world.
Netanyahu says that although Qatar seems to be playing a double attitude towards the war (hosting Hamas leaders while brokering peace), Netanyahu insists that Qatar must use its “considerable influence” to get the hostages free immediately, as well as providing them with medicine. What if it doesn’t? Well, Netanyahu will have some words with Western countries.
Finally, the Prime Minister says that Iran simply must not be permitted to develop nuclear weapons, for it’s already inciting violence without them, and it’s horrible to imagine what they could do with nukes. He insists that the civilized world cannot allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. (Murray misses the chance to ask “how can the West do that?”)
Again, I strongly recommend that you take half an hour and watch this. I didn’t want to at first, but now I’m glad I did.
I was looking on Wikipedia’s lists of countries and the fraction of population by religion. I was not sure what to say about it – as I seemed to see a correlation of Islam compared to Judaism. Historical record might not be accounted for.
Thought I’d mention it, as very broad background, perhaps, for this post. I leave it to readers to take a look on their own (so, no links).
Thanks for posting this; I’ll definitely watch it. I don’t always agree with Douglas Murray, but he is always interesting. I hope you feel better soon.
I think you could make a good argument that the Western world (at least) has been running under a consensus for the last few decades where hard choices can be deferred indefinitely. I leave it as an exercise for other commenters to consider what those issues are…
It now seems that we have run out of opportunities to put off hard choices, and the cost of that delay will be enormous, and probably deadly.
I’ll definitely watch the video. I read Netanyahu’s autobiography last year and was impressed.* It’s incredibly well written and quite personal. (You’ll note that I’m neither defending nor demonizing him.) My late father (d. 2011) used to say that “He was nobody’s fool.” My father was quite correct in his assessment.
* https://www.amazon.com/Bibi-My-Story-Benjamin-Netanyahu/dp/1668008440
Just finished while pounding on the cardio machine. Excellent interview that deserves wide distribution. To quote my late father: “Netanyahu is nobody’s fool.”
I still have no issue saying this war was convenient for him considering what he was going through before it.
I have never found Murray guilty of saying anything that isnt true or reeks of any kind of ideology. His conservative views on economics in no way taint his intensely ethical honest and substantiated statements and opinions. He is a public treasure, like Nick Cohen, Tim Snyder, Anne Applebaum and Mark Galeotti, aggressively defending and articulating the truth and letting the chips fall where they may. That Murray is smeared as a “conservative” is the only way the loony left can try to rebut him and rebut his argument; they have nothing else to smear him with.
“or reeks of any kind of ideology.”
I have to disagree with you there. Murray refuses to acknowledge any negative externalities brought about by Margaret Thatcher’s austerity policies. The immiseration of the working class during this period of time clearly does not bother him, as it was necessary for the neoliberal agenda.
NB that when you click to run this one, it starts in the middle, probably because of how it’s embedded, so click to run and then reset to the start.
I guess Murray didn’t want to venture into the justification for Bibi’s regime to facilitate the flow of Qatari money into the hands of Hamas in order to subvert the more moderate PLO. Pure puff-piece dishonesty. No accountability. Disappointing interview.