'Netanyahu's vision of victory in Gaza is more Stalin than Churchill'
Haaretz Podcast20 Maj 2025

'Netanyahu's vision of victory in Gaza is more Stalin than Churchill'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fancies himself as Israel's Winston Churchill, when in fact, the Gaza war has demonstrated he is exactly the opposite of Great Britain's storied leader, asserted Anshel Pfeffer, Israel correspondent for The Economist, former Haaretz analyst and a Netanyahu biographer, on the Haaretz Podcast.

"We shouldn't be making this World War II – the Nazis against everybody else, and comparing that to Israel's war with Hamas. But that's being almost forced upon us by Netanyahu and his supporters," said Pfeffer in conversation with host Allison Kaplan Sommer.

Pfeffer, who recently published a column in Haaretz about Netanyahu's repeated slogan of achieving "total victory" over Hamas and his misguided identification with Churchill in the second world war, said "Churchill was a brilliant wartime leader. He managed to bring the British together at that crucial point in history, uniting a country at a time of a terrible war. Yet, he didn't have the ability to win elections. Netanyahu is the opposite. As we've seen so clearly, he is totally useless at uniting Israel at a time of war, but he's very, very good at winning elections and clinging onto power."

Pfeffer also pointed out that the "scorched earth" victory model that Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners are pursuing in Gaza hews closer to former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and Russian President Vladimir Putin than Churchill and the other Western allies. Netanyahu should be reminded, Pfeffer said, that the U.K. and the U.S. were "magnanimous and benevolent" victors who poured millions into rebuilding a de-Nazified Germany. "That is a very, very different vision of victory."

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Avsnitt(100)

How a Haaretz investigation into stolen Ukrainian wheat triggered a diplomatic crisis

How a Haaretz investigation into stolen Ukrainian wheat triggered a diplomatic crisis

A diplomatic crisis over Israeli import of stolen grain from occupied Ukraine exploded this week following the publication of a Haaretz investigation that documents Ukrainian allegations that Russian ...

1 Maj 25min

'American Jews really hate Trump. But they hate Netanyahu even more'

'American Jews really hate Trump. But they hate Netanyahu even more'

The average American watched the Gaza war from afar as a "dramatic and gruesome humanitarian crisis that Israel was responsible for" – but the U.S.-Israel war in Iran is having a far greater impact on...

28 Apr 29min

Making Israel's case to ChatGPT and Grok: Hasbara meets AI in multi-million dollar PR push

Making Israel's case to ChatGPT and Grok: Hasbara meets AI in multi-million dollar PR push

Fighting antisemitism online was meant to be the focus of the Israeli government’s multimillion-dollar digital PR campaign run by President Donald Trump’s former digital guru, Brad Parscale. But inste...

24 Apr 28min

'You can't heal in a perpetual war': Israeli peace activist Yonatan Zeigen on following in his mother's footsteps

'You can't heal in a perpetual war': Israeli peace activist Yonatan Zeigen on following in his mother's footsteps

The final moments of Vivian Silver’s life were a “pivotal turning point” for her son Yonatan Zeigen, who now dedicates his life to Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, following in the footsteps of his...

20 Apr 27min

'The Hungarians turned their anxiety into hope, that's the main lesson for Israelis'

'The Hungarians turned their anxiety into hope, that's the main lesson for Israelis'

The dramatic landslide election in Hungary toppling authoritarian populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, resonated deeply for Israel in diverse ways, explained Haaretz’s David Issacharoff, who covered ...

17 Apr 25min

'We'll kill you, traitor': How far-right thugs and police target Israel's antiwar protest leaders

'We'll kill you, traitor': How far-right thugs and police target Israel's antiwar protest leaders

As diplomatic talks between Iran and the United States continue in an effort to extend the temporary cease-fire due to expire on April 22, public opinion surveys show that while a majority of Israelis...

14 Apr 32min

Iran war cease-fire update with Amos Harel: 'Trump wants out and Netanyahu is extremely disappointed'

Iran war cease-fire update with Amos Harel: 'Trump wants out and Netanyahu is extremely disappointed'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "extremely disappointed" by the terms of the temporary cease-fire hammered out between Donald Trump's White House and Iran, but has little choice but to accept it ...

9 Apr 17min

What Trump got wrong about Iran, what the IDF got wrong about Hezbollah: Amos Harel on wars with no exit strategy

What Trump got wrong about Iran, what the IDF got wrong about Hezbollah: Amos Harel on wars with no exit strategy

As the war with Iran drags on and the conflict with Hezbollah intensifies, a growing number of Israelis are “losing faith” in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises of a decisive victory, Haaret...

6 Apr 30min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

aftonbladet-krim
rss-krimstad
p3-krim
svenska-fall
spar
aftonbladet-daily
flashback-forever
politiken
rss-sanning-konsekvens
rss-expressen-dok
motiv
rss-vad-fan-hande
rss-krimreportrarna
blenda-2
ett-rent-noje
grans
kungligt
rss-aftonbladet-krim
svd-ledarredaktionen
rss-frandfors-horna