THERE are many ways of emulating Winston Churchill, but surely winning a war while losing your own people must be the least preferred option for a politician. Churchill had won the epic war against the existential threat from Hitler by May 8, 1945; less than eight weeks later, on July 5, he was wiped out in a British general election. Labour under the non-flamboyant Clement Attlee took 47.7 per cent of the popular vote against Churchill’s 36.2 per cent. Churchill’s sense of humour survived the ruins; he noted that the people had awarded him the Order of the Boot.
Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will at some point declare victory in his war against Hamas, but he cannot postpone democracy in his country. Israel is a robust and proudly democratic state. Every opinion poll indicates that Netanyahu has already lost the confidence of his people. He has entered the slippery zone of those who lose it all because they want it all.
London’s Spectator, a leading supporter of Israel’s war against Hamas, explained why Netanyahu’s ratings have gone south in a critique from Anshel Pfeffer, Jerusalem correspondent of the Economist for 27 years, published on November 8. An Israeli leader has failed his primary responsibility if he cannot ensure the people’s security. The chiefs of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and intelligence services have accepted blame, and will resign when the fighting THE structure has novelty, so that’s a start: a Continental Pentangular.
Do ICC and BCCI want yet another cricket tamasha? You bet they do. As long as there is pan masala there will be cricket. The official rationale can’t be cash, so of course we are formally taking cricket forward on the twin principles of revival and fresh fields.
We may have to reposition geography, but that is what empire builders have been doing through history. The five quasi-continental teams would be: IndoAsia; Af-Pak-Gulf; South-East Africa; Brit-Europe; and Australia- Windies, nicknamed Indasia, APG, Seafrica, Briteau and Auswies. The obvious Big Five provide the nucleus, but never the pauses; Netanyahu has blamed everyone but himself.
In a poll taken during end- October, some 50 per cent of respondents said they trusted generals more than the Prime Minister, and three quarters of respondents wanted Netanyahu to resign. His Likud Party has lost 40 per cent of its vote. Till the moment of writing, Netanyahu had shifted from his personal home to an American billionaire’s villa which is equipped with a nuclear shelter. While 360,000 Israeli civilian reservists, men and women, have joined the forces, his two sons continue to live abroad. There is much more in this vein; and enough to sketch out a future political upheaval.
