Years before Trump Derangement Syndrome, there was a longer-lasting and even more virulent strain of the phenomenon: Bibi Derangement Syndrome. Americans, Europeans, and everyone else in the world—even Israelis—can suffer from it. And as Tuesday’s election in Israel demonstrates, BDS is a vision-impairing condition.
Go to Israel and have any normal experience in Tel Aviv, and you will return home wondering how on earth Benjamin Netanyahu was ever elected even once. After all, nobody you will meet has voted for him. Or at least admits to it. Look at almost any opinion poll, including those before the latest election, and you will consistently—almost systematically—see Netanyahu’s popularity vastly underestimated. He surprises every time.
With him having been prime minister for 19 of the last 30 years and the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history, the term “political survivor” doesn’t begin to do justice to Netanyahu’s political longevity. When he began his first term as prime minister, Bill Clinton was president of the United States, John Major was the British prime minister, and Jacques Chirac was president of France. Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria, King Hussein ruled Jordan, and Hosni Mubarak was Israel’s negotiating partner as Egyptian president. Nancy Pelosi had already spent 10 years in Congress.
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