'Morning Joe' Reveals: At Long Last, Netanyahu Is Losing pro-Israel Americans

A conversation between Joe Scarborough and retired U.S. Admiral James Stavridis on 'Morning Joe' reflected what so many Americans know: Netanyahu is a corrupt politician clinging to power at all costs

By Amir Tibon 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the Israel-Hamas war in Tel Aviv, Israel, in October 2023.

One of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's greatest advantages over his long political career has been his ability to trick U.S. journalists who cover Israel without sufficient knowledge. He extracts glowing coverage from them, which he in turn uses to sell himself to the Israeli public as some kind of diplomatic genius. Look what they say about me in America, he tells his supporters.

Some American journalists still fall for this con, as we saw in Time magazine's interview with Netanyahu last week. But in other important corners of the American mainstream media, things have changed. I'm not referring to left-wing critics of Israel, who have been writing against Netanyahu for years and have very little impact on how the man is perceived publicly, both in the United States and in Israel. What I mean is, for example, an interview this week on the MSNBC news program "Morning Joe."

It started with Joe Scarborough, the show's co-host and a former Republican member of Congress, reading from a recent column by The Washington Post's top national security analyst, David Ignatius. In that piece, Ignatius accurately described the obstacles that Netanyahu has systematically and deliberately created in the negotiations for a deal to release the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Scarborough quoted the relevant part and then asked his guest, retired U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, "Are we really in a position where one man, who is trying to avoid political defeat and jail, is going to move us into a regional war?"

Stavridis replied: "Unfortunately, you can lay that case out pretty coherently that he is the roadblock here." The retired admiral mentioned that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party and a former general, has been pushing for a deal to release the hostages, but that Netanyahu has found ways to obstruct the process time and again.

This wasn't the usual suspects criticizing Netanyahu. Scarborough has described the demonstrations against Israel on college campuses as "too stupid" and warned that they will lead to the rise of fascism in the United States. Stavridis has also criticized the demonstrations, and he spoke forcefully at the beginning of the Gaza war about Israel's commitment to find and free the hostages.

The dialogue between Scarborough and Stavridis was a testament to Netanyahu's loss of legitimacy in the eyes of many Americans who are natural supporters of Israel. These Americans understand that the protests against Israel in the United States over the past year have been harmful and wrong, and that Israel had just and important reasons to fight against Hamas and Gaza. And they supported President Joe Biden when he sent ammunition and warships to Israel to help the country defend itself.

And yet, at the same time, they realize that Israel's prime minister is, just as Scarborough and Stavridis described him, a corrupt politician clinging to power at all costs, even if that means blocking a hostage deal so that his alliance with his far-right coalition partners will not be threatened.

Over time, more and more American pundits will be saying these words – simply because there's no way to deny their accuracy.