Benjamin Netanyahu Not An Autocrat

One of the lessons we can take away from Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent loss in Israel, writes former Obama strategist Ben Rhodes, is that “to defeat an autocrat who attacks democratic norms and institutions, oppositions need to unify under a big tent. In Israel’s case, that even led [Yair] Lapid to compromise on who would start as PM, but he understood the imperative of getting Bibi out first.”

It’s weird, is it not, that this “autocrat” lost his election in a nation that features an antagonistic press, an independent (and often zealously partisan) judiciary, full voting rights for all citizens, and numerous political parties — even some openly anti-Zionist ones? Like many contemporary progressives, Rhodes, antagonistic to individual liberty, economic freedom, and constitutional norms here at home, has a highly malleable definition of “democracy” and “autocrat.”

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David Harsanyi

David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.

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Benjamin Netanyahu

One of the lessons we can take away from Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent loss in Israel, writes former Obama strategist Ben Rhodes, is that “to defeat an autocrat who attacks democratic norms and institutions, oppositions need to unify under a big tent. In Israel’s case, that even led [Yair] Lapid to compromise on who would start as PM, but he understood the imperative of getting Bibi out first.”

It’s weird, is it not, that this “autocrat” lost his election in a nation that features an antagonistic press, an independent (and often zealously partisan) judiciary, full voting rights for all citizens, and numerous political parties — even some openly anti-Zionist ones? Like many contemporary progressives, Rhodes, antagonistic to individual liberty, economic freedom, and constitutional norms here at home, has a highly malleable definition of “democracy” and “autocrat.”