Gil Troy: Bibi and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University and a Shalom Hartman Intstitute Engaging Israel Research Fellow in Jerusalem. His next book, “Moynihan’s Moment: America's Fight against Zionism as Racism,” will be published by Oxford University Press this fall.

The Ynet/Yediot Achranot main web page says it all. Underneath a picture of an exuberant Michelle Obama, a beaming Barack Obama, a delighted Joe Biden and a happily waving Jill Biden, comes the sobering headline: “Netanyahu Belachatz: Darash MeHasarim V’HaCh’Kim Lo Ledaber Al Obama,” which translates as “Netanyahu Stressed: Ordered His Ministers and MKs Not to Talk About Obama.”

Once again illustrating the problem of having a too-candid Cabinet member whom you cannot fire—or at least whom you believe you cannot fire—Netanyahu’s blunt Interior Minister from Shas, Eli Yishai, confessed: “This is probably not a very good morning for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” And to make matters worse, Israel’s wily, passive-aggressive, smug yet eloquent, elegant and popular elder statesman, President Shimon Peres, spoke in a simple code easily deciphered when he responded to a question about the wisdom of interfering in America’s elections by saying: “There are many wise people in Israel and there are many people who think differently. I prefer to belong to the righteous minority not the erring majority.”