Was Netanyahu chosen by God, or judged too harshly by man? - opinion

On the Fourth of July this year, I will reflect on three things: America's 250th birthday, the sacrifice of Yonatan Netanyahu, who led the Entebbe raid, and his brother, Benjamin Netanyahu.

When you look at Israel's history, going back to Abraham, you draw tremendous inspiration from those individuals who were chosen by God. People like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Daniel, kings like Josiah, and prophets like Isaiah were all on a mission. They impacted the destiny of the nation of Israel and the world. They were human beings, but their uniqueness was that they were chosen by God.

Man's ability to confront evil is determined by the inspiration he draws from his heroes and his history, especially those who were chosen.

When you look at Israel's modern history, it is difficult to see through an eternal lens that God indeed chooses people because the mystique of leadership is gone. With the enormous amount of false information being spread in microseconds via the internet, like poison injected into the veins of the reader, people attempt to manipulate what they call insight based upon their perception, which is their reality but not necessarily the truth.

Leadership especially is rarely evaluated from God's perspective.

Yes, our heroes were simply human beings, but many were chosen, not by man, but by God.

There was a young man who was chosen. He did not choose himself. In fact, he had no plans to enter politics and no ambition to become prime minister. Yet God often chooses people who never expected to carry the burden of leadership.

That young man's name was Benjamin Netanyahu.

Looking at all the years Benjamin Netanyahu has been in leadership, Israel has experienced one of the most remarkable periods of growth and influence in its modern history. He helped transform Israel into a global leader in technology, cybersecurity, medicine, agriculture, artificial intelligence, and innovation.

Under his leadership, Israel strengthened its military capabilities, expanded intelligence operations that became the envy of nations around the world, and built an economy that attracted billions in foreign investment. He oversaw historic diplomatic breakthroughs, including the Abraham Accords, which shattered the myth that peace with the Arab world was impossible.

But leadership is not measured only in times of prosperity. It is measured in times of crisis. Benjamin Netanyahu has led Israel through some of the most dangerous periods in its modern history. He has faced wars, terrorist campaigns, missile attacks, international pressure, and existential threats from enemies sworn to destroy the Jewish state.

Among those challenges was the horror of October 7, when Israel suffered the deadliest attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. In the days that followed, Netanyahu bore the responsibility of leading a nation at war while confronting Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and enemies on multiple fronts.

While critics debated and commentators speculated, he was forced to make life-and-death decisions affecting millions of Israelis. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the willingness to stand firm when the stakes could not be higher. Whether confronting Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, or the relentless campaign to isolate Israel on the world stage, Netanyahu has demonstrated a resolve that has helped preserve the security and survival of the Jewish state during some of its darkest hours.

No American president had been willing to confront Iran, and no Israeli prime minister, until Benjamin Netanyahu, warned the world for decades with greater courage or greater conviction about the danger that was coming.

He stood against international pressure when many demanded concessions that would have endangered Israel's security. Through wars, terrorism, regional instability, and unprecedented global scrutiny, Netanyahu consistently positioned Israel as a nation that would not merely survive but thrive. Whether one agrees with every decision he has made or not, no honest observer can deny that Benjamin Netanyahu has left an indelible mark on the history of the Jewish state.

Today, as Israel enters another election cycle, massive amounts of misinformation are being spread in an attempt to destroy the mystique of leadership and pollute the minds of voters with personal prejudices and political ideologies that have little to do with truth and nothing to do with God.

There are moments in life when God reveals His plans long before anyone else can see them.

On June 30, 1980, I sat in the office of a great prime minister, Menachem Begin, for the first time. He asked me a question I couldn't answer.

"Why did you come?"

So I repeated the question, and he talked for ten minutes. Then he asked again. He did this three times.

Finally, I said, "Mr. Prime Minister, I don't know."

He laughed and said, "What? You fly thousands of miles to meet with the prime minister, and you don't know why you came?"

"Do you know anything?"

I said, "Only one thing, that God sent me."

He replied, "God didn't tell you why?"

"No, sir."

He turned to his chief of staff, Yehiel Kadishai, and said, "Shake his hand. You have finally met an honest man in this office. He knows God sent him to meet with me, but he doesn't know why."

Then Begin laughed and said, "Mike, when God tells you why, come back and tell me."

Several days later, on the Fourth of July, I was in my room praying in Jerusalem and reading the Jewish Scriptures when I heard a noise at the door. Someone was placing a newspaper outside my room.

On the front page was the story of Yonatan Netanyahu and the Entebbe raid. It was the anniversary of Yonatan’s death.

I felt strongly that I heard a still, small voice, not one that could be distinguished by the natural ear, saying, "Go and comfort the family."

I did not know them and had never met them.

I asked my driver if he knew where Benzion Netanyahu lived.

He said, "Yes, of course. The town is not so big."

He drove me to the family's home, and I knocked on the door.

Benzion answered.

I said, "Sir, I don't want to bother you. I simply want to express my condolences for the loss of your heroic son, who made such great sacrifices for this beloved nation and saved all those lives at Entebbe in what may be the greatest rescue mission in Israel's history."

He asked my name and where I was from.

As I turned to leave, he stopped me.

"No, come in and have some tea."

As we sat together, a very depressed young man entered, Benjamin Netanyahu. His brother Yoni was his hero. Benjamin was the one who had to tell his parents the horror of the loss and listen to their screams as they fell to the floor in unspeakable pain.

I could see the agony in his eyes. I asked if I could pray for him.

Before he even agreed, I placed my hand on his shoulder and prayed:

"Yonatan loved David. You loved Yonatan. Out of the ashes of despair will come strength from God, and you will be the Prime Minister of Israel."

He looked at me and said, "Mike, I'm not going into politics."

Benzion looked at me and thought he had let an idiot into his house.

He spoke loudly and said, "You are a moron, but you're not an ordinary one. You're an authentic moron."

I left shortly afterward.

When I departed, I called Yehiel Kadishai and said, "I know why God sent me to meet with the prime minister."

He replied, "Okay, come to the prime minister's office tomorrow and tell us. We will cut his meetings short because he really wants to know why you came."

The next day I walked into Menachem Begin's office and said, "I met the prime minister yesterday."

He replied, "No, you're mistaken. You met me on June 30."

I said, "It's not you I'm talking about. It's Benjamin Netanyahu."

It took him a moment to recognize the name. Then his senior adviser, Reuben Hecht, said, "It's Benzion's son, Yoni's brother."

"Why do you say this?" Begin asked me. I told him the story of my visit and that Benjamin was chosen by God. I told him to give Benjamin a job in the government because he would one day be prime minister.

Begin looked at Reuben. Reuben said, "Menachem, I must tell you a story.

'The day I met Mike, he called me by the wrong name. I asked him to call me by my first name, Reuben, and he called me Joseph.

‘I spoke loudly and said, "My name is Reuben."

'Mike said, "I'm sorry. It's jet lag. I made a mistake."

'I told him, "No, you said it intentionally."

'The year was 1943. My father was a shipbuilder in Belgium, and he was dying. He took my hand and whispered, "Joseph, Joseph, Joseph. The nation of Israel will be born, and you will feed it bread."

'I sold the shipbuilding business, and with the money, like Joseph in the Bible, I started the granary of Israel.

'No one knows this story except my wife Edith and me. Mike called me Joseph. He hears the voice of God. I believe he heard the voice of God about Benjamin when he told him he would be prime minister."

Menachem then said, "Give him a job under Moshe Arens at the embassy in Washington, D.C."

I never went back to Benjamin Netanyahu and told him what happened that day.

But twenty-seven years later, he asked me to have lunch. He reminded me of what happened on the Fourth of July:

"Mike, shortly after you prophesied that over me, I was given a position in the government. Did you ask for it? Don't lie to me."

I said, "Yes." He asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

I replied, "Because I didn't choose you. God did. It was a holy thing, and I didn't want you to feel obligated to me, nor did I want to take the glory for it."

He smiled and said: "Mike, I don't know whether I should kiss you or kick you in the ass."

So during an Israeli election, voters have to decide whether they will kiss Benjamin Netanyahu or kick him in the ass with their vote.

No matter what he has achieved, many people are convinced they have every right in the world to kick him in the ass, though he never chose himself to be prime minister.

I am sure the great heroes throughout the Bible had plenty of critics who felt the same way about them because they did not hear the echo of eternity and realize that God had chosen them. Absalom's followers were thoroughly convinced that he was the man. He was handsome and clever. But God chooses very differently than man does.

I had the rare privilege, as a young man, of being in the Oval Office with Ronald Reagan. On his desk was a small sign that read, "A man can become too big in his own eyes to be used by God, but never too small." I told him, "You're the most loved president in the world." He smiled, leaned over, and quietly replied, "I'm also the most hated." Then he added, "The price of admission to changing the world is unspeakable evil and betrayal. When it comes, don't play the victim."

During this election season, I am not thinking about who I would vote for because I cannot vote in Israel. I am not a citizen.

I can only think about whom God chose.

The question every generation must answer is whether it will judge its leaders by temporary popularity or by eternal purpose. The crowd wanted Absalom because he looked like a king. God chose David because He saw the heart. Throughout history, God has often chosen unlikely people to accomplish extraordinary purposes. Those choices rarely make sense to the crowd at the moment. They only become clear when viewed through the lens of history and eternity.

When Samuel looked at the sons of Jesse, he naturally assumed the strongest, tallest, and most impressive would be God's choice. But God reminded him that man looks on the outward appearance while the Lord looks on the heart. The same lesson echoes throughout Scripture. God's choices are often misunderstood because He sees what others cannot see.

That does not mean every decision a leader makes is perfect. David was not perfect. Moses was not perfect. Elijah was not perfect. Yet God used them to fulfill His purposes. The question is not whether a leader is flawless. The question is whether God has placed His hand upon that leader for a purpose greater than himself.

It has been said that man proposes, but God disposes.

Israel exists not because it has the greatest minds in the world or the most courageous people. It is a tiny country that was reborn out of the ashes of the Holocaust, when one-third of the Jewish world was massacred.

Against all odds, in a part of the world surrounded by enemies who want to destroy it, Israel survives.

It exists because God chose Israel. It was His dream.

Israel is not perfect, but it has existed longer than any nation on earth.

America celebrates its 250th birthday on July 4 with great excitement. But Israel's story did not begin in 1948. Its story began nearly 4,000 years ago when God spoke to Abraham and established an everlasting covenant.

"I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

The same God who chose Abraham chose Israel.

The same God who chose Moses chose David.

The same God who chose David chose prophets, kings, and leaders throughout history.

And sometimes, whether critics understand it or not, God still chooses men for a purpose larger than themselves.

The most important question for Israel is not simply who can win an election.

The most important question is who has been chosen for such a time as this.

Daniel, in ancient Persia, declared, "He changes times and seasons; He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning" (Daniel 2:21). Isaiah expressed the same truth this way: "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever" (Isaiah 40:8).