Netanyahu has been unfit for office for a while. Make it official before he takes us all down

I have never understood how 11 vs. 0 Supreme Court justices imagined that the criminal defendant, Benjamin Netanyahu, could remain without a conflict of interest while appointing a justice minister who is administratively subordinate to him and politically dependent on him. In any event, the country is already in a different era, where we fight Hamas as if there is no government, and fight the government as if there is no Hamas. Only now, this modern adaptation of Ben-Gurion’s original statement is not against a British government that issued the white paper preventing Jewish refugees from immigrating here during the war against the Nazis, but rather an Israeli government that is actively debilitating national security and impairing the economic and social stability of its own country.

During war, amidst an increasingly hostile international arena, we are completely dependent on the United States to supply us with needed armaments on an ongoing basis, with naval power that projects “don’t” to our enemies, and with a diplomatic umbrella for a country that is quickly becoming an international pariah. The sole condition for America’s support is that Israel take measures to prevent conditions leading to hunger and disease in Gaza (that could spread to Israel), while developing what our own army urgently needs and insists on to enable successful completion of its mission – a plan for the day after.

All of this collides head-on with Netanyahu’s personal agenda: maintaining power and stopping his criminal trial. This is why he established the most extreme and incompetent government in the nation’s history. Now, instead of taking steps to widen the international window for completing the mission in Gaza, its members are sticking their fingers in the eyes of the Americans and the rest of the developed world. As if this were not enough, Netanyahu and company spare no means to incite against large sections of their own population, while creating with their own hands the case to put Israel and our soldiers on trial at The Hague. We will be paying for the unfitness of the person heading Israel today for many years to come.

During wartime, Netanyahu allows his messianic finance minister – that he personally put in power – to loot the country’s coffers and transfer billions of shekels in additional budgetary allotments to the settlers and the ultra-Orthodox. He allows the convicted racist that he appointed as the minister in charge of the nation’s police to light matches that could set fire to the West Bank, and possibly within the Green Line as well. A prime minister who puts his own political survival before the good of his country is unable to fire delusional ministers during a war that could easily escalate into an existential crisis. Netanyahu consciously chose incapacitation as his personal insurance policy at Israel’s most difficult hour.

To reach the day after, Israel’s army needs a clear and defined objective. Continued avoidance of this not only diminishes international support and legitimacy for Israel, it also prolongs the fighting and reduces chances of bringing home live hostages. How many more people need to die before we put an end to this incapacitation that is accelerating Israel’s downward spiral into the abyss?

While our citizen-soldiers literally put the country before their own lives, we have a prime minister who shamelessly puts himself above the good of the country. There has never been clearer evidence that Netanyahu is violating his oath of office. Day after day, he proves his unfitness to hold Israel’s highest office during the country’s most dangerous period since its birth. This is not the time for niceties and blind hope along the lines of the 11-0 decision.

The time has come for Israel’s attorney general, Gali Baharav Miara, to legally confirm what is clear to anyone with eyes in their head. Netanyahu has long been unfit for office. Make this fact official and free us from his rule before Netanyahu takes us all down together with him.