PCG Mourning the Apparent Fall of Netanyahu

After going though four elections since March 2019 it now appears that the State of Israel will have a new Prime Minister and a new coalition government by June 14. No Likud Party involvement required. Unless something unexpected happens Benjamin Netanyahu will be out of office once the new government gets sworn in. The proposed government has not taken power yet PCG has already produced an article about this. The PCG leadership adores Netanyahu so they are not happy at this development. Let's see what PCG has to say about this now. (Brent Nagtegaal, Will Israel Lose Its Churchill?, June 3, 2021.)

Jerusalem—Barring last-minute heroics, the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history will soon be out of power. 

It seems evident that what mainly frustrated Likud's attempts to regain power since 2018 is the fact that Netanyahu happens to be facing several corruption allegations in the courts of law. Turns out a lot of Israelis are not happy having to take orders from a Prime Minster facing corruption charges. Nagtegaal gives little attention to that problem.

Netanyahu became Israel’s youngest-ever prime minister during his first term (1996–1999) and its longest-serving prime minister during his second (2009–present) and has weathered numerous onslaughts, including multiple corruption charges.

Outside observers, especially conservatives, find it illogical that Israelis would discard Netanyahu in the face of multiple threats to Israel’s security. The prime minister is viewed by many as one of the most effective leaders in Israel’s modern history. In a region prone to violence, He has successfully managed to protect Israel from outside threats, especially Iran. In fact, the last decade under Netanyahu has been Israel’s most peaceful, and in just the past year, his government signed four new peace agreements with Arab states, doubling the number that have been signed since Israel’s modern founding. 

Meanwhile, as most nations still grapple with COVID-related crises, Israel is back to normal, apart from its largely closed international borders.

And a major reason why the State of Israel is like that now is because they did not let people like Stephen Flurry scare them off from getting vaccinated. And they wore masks. Prime Minister Netanyahu advised the people to wear face masks. The contradiction between PCG's stance and what the Israeli government under Netanyahu had done is quietly ignored.

Yet it is also undeniable that Mr. Netanyahu has become the most divisive leader in Israeli history. In the past election, Netanyahu’s Likud party attained its most votes ever. That number was still not enough to maintain power, yet it shows the power he holds among the party’s base. And at the same time, Netanyahu’s enemies have increased across all sectors of society.

Nagtegaal is wrong to say that the Likud Party got more votes in the 2021 election than any previous election. That is not true. In the 2020 election Likud got 1,352,449 votes which was 29.46% of the vote. But in the 2021 election Likud got 1,066,892 votes which was 24.19 % of the vote. Likud lost about 285,557 votes compared with their result in the 2020 election. This is a major reason why Netanyahu faces the prospect of losing power: Many previous Likud voters did not vote for the Likud party this time. Nagtegaal is wrong to say Likud got more votes in the 2021 election than ever before. That simply is not true. Why does the PCG leadership let him say something that is verifiably untrue?

And the question must be asked: why have people in the State of Israel chose to no longer support Prime Minister Netanyahu? Did this have anything to do with the corruption allegations? Such questions are ignored in this article.

Nagtegaal then condemn the incoming government as an unworkable government doomed to fail once it gets into power and remove Netanyahu from the Prime Minister's office.

While presenting Prime Minister Netanyahu in a positive light Nagtegaal refers to the Biden Administration as "the American regime."

Mr. Netanyahu is fighting to safeguard Israel’s future, just as he has done during previous American administrations. It is the American regime that has turned hostile.

Nagtegaal cites a statement by the Prime Minster and does not cite his source. Apparently we are just supposed to merely take his word for it that this happened.

“If we have to choose—I hope it doesn’t happen—between friction with our great friend the United States and eliminating the existential threat, eliminating the existential threat [wins],” Netanyahu said recently. 

Nagtegaal accuses the Biden Administration of seeking to back Iran at the State of Israel's expense.

More than any other political leader in Israel, Netanyahu is keenly aware of the anti-Israel policies of the United States. He almost certainly realizes that this is a greater threat to his country than even Iran. More than any other political leader in Israel, Netanyahu recognizes that it is a United States-backed Iran that poses the greatest threat to Israel.

Nagtegaal mentions Netanyahu's speech before a joint session of Congress in 2015 to oppose the deal with Iran. He implies that Donald Trump was elected President due to opposition among Americans to the deal with Iran.

Netanyahu was chosen by the people, “he saw the sword coming,” and he warned of the danger of a United States-backed Iran, embodied in Barack Obama’s nuclear deal. And the American people listened, voting into power a leader who was determined to nullify the deal and restore deterrence on Iran.

Actually Netanyahu was not chosen by the people because the electoral system in the State of Israel is somewhat indirect. In the State of Israel the voters vote for the party, not the leader or individual candidate. After the vote who gets to lead is in the legislators' hands and power does not necessarily go to the party with the most votes. For instance, in the 2009 election Likud got 21.61% of the vote and were actually second behind the Kadima Party led by Tzipi Livni which got 22.47%. But unlike today Likud had more allies back then so they gained power anyway.

Now the reason the PCG leadership pays so much attention to the State of Israel is because they think political acts in connection with that industrialized nation state will somehow herald the beginning of the end of the world as we know it to be destroyed in a future World War III. In this supposed war the State of Israel, America and Britain will be militarily conquered by a future European Empire. Some "friends" the Armstrongites are for the State of Israel: They watch news about it to detect if the end is near.

Israel faces a historic moment right now. Several important biblical prophecies are in play, and political upheaval—particularly one that emboldens Israel’s enemies and makes the Jewish state more vulnerable—could rapidly advance the fulfillment of these prophecies. Still, although Netanyahu may be gone, the warning will continue. 

Unlike Herbert Armstrong, Gerald Flurry and their imitators I make no claim to see the future. But no matter who happens to be Prime Minister of the State of Israel we can rest assured that the false prophecies of Armstrongism will never be fulfilled. Since 1989 PCG have made numerous predictions that have not happened. We can take comfort in knowing that no matter what happens in this current political drama the scary predictions of Armstrongism will never happen.