Bibi's War

After more than a year of war, it's time to revise the account.

Check out the Podcast version of this post on Tangled with Jack Lively

It’s time to shape up the narrative from more than a year of war in the Middle East.

The events themselves have taken on a completely different public tenor than they had in the beginning. Now, we can benefit from hindsight and call winners and losers, not only in the war, but among those who had opinions on how to conduct it.

Cast your mind back a year to January 2024.

• Hezbollah was attacking northern Israel on a daily basis.

• American bases in Iraq were being targeted by Iranian militia drones.

• The IDF was grinding away in Gaza, slowly.

• The Israelis were ducking and weaving around all kinds of flack from allies and non governmental institutions alike.

• The international community’s watchwords were “ceasefire” and “De-escalation”.

Here’s a quote from US state department spokesman, Matthew Miller:

"We remain incredibly concerned... about the risk of the conflict spreading into other fronts... which is why you’ve seen the Secretary engage in intensive diplomacy to try to urge all of the relevant parties not to escalate the conflict.”

On January 8th, 2024 US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said:

"We are working tirelessly to ensure that the conflict in Gaza does not ignite a broader regional war.”

Now look at where we are today.

The regional war happened and we won.

Hamas has lost perhaps 80% of its fighting strength and is currently only capable of recruiting teenagers for harassing attacks on IDF lines.

Hezbollah hasn’t really been heard of since they were essentially nuked by the IDF in September, 2024 - after a lead up of several month’s worth of targeted attacks that we can discuss later.

the Assad regime was taken down because its sponsors no longer had the strength to support their genocidal existence.

Trump will be inaugurated as president of the USA in ten days.

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The Flip

The results of the war are essentially a complete flip from where almost anyone not associated with the extreme right wing said it was going to go a year ago.

If we can agree that this is true, isn’t it necessary to revise the assumptions that animated the vast mainstream of thought space on this subject?

I propose that the war in Israel is more important than almost anyone understands. It’s pivotal for the West.

I don’t entirely know why that’s the case. I’m not even going to try and understand it here. I’ll just make the case for a revision of how you see things.

And there is no greater figure to use than Bibi.

Object of hate.

Object of adulation.

Essentially the entire European, American, and Israeli center left has attempted to take Bibi down over the last year and a half.

Anyone with half a brain can see that Bibi isn’t single handedly responsible for the war, in either direction. It takes two to tango, and in this case it’s more like a dance of 50 pythons in a dark sack.

Nonetheless, he’s the elected Prime Minister of Israel. While the results aren’t his alone, he gets a a share. Throughout this war he has ducked and weaved and ended up remaining prime minister of a country with two important results from this war.

1. They’ve arrived at a better strategic position than they were in before the war.

2. The Israelis are left without enemies on their borders.

3. They’ve managed to deepen their relationship with the United States, despite disagreeing with and almost completely ignoring 100 percent of American advice.

That’s not a nothing result. It’s a serious victory.

The Exercise

In order to understand something, you need to inhabit it, to become that which you would like to know. Writers do this all the time. It’s one reason that it’s completely ridiculous to talk about writing what you know.

The entire point is to write so that you know.

The exercise here is to practice empathy. We’re going to be Bibi.

I’ll say this again during the course of this unfolding because many readers or listeners will get confused.

This is a story, a narrative of the last year of war. I will be choosing key moments to make the point, to tell the story. There is no way to get around the need to choose. You understand that right?

You’re free to choose your own key moments, and make whatever story you would like to make. Do it and send me a link to your version.

Maybe I’ll do another one of these from the opposite point of view, in the future.

But in terms of main protagonists… who do I use if not Bibi?

The Worldview

We need to begin with a worldview - A "Weltanschauung", the German word that translates to "worldview" or "philosophy of life."

Not only because Bibi is a key protagonist in the unfolding story of the October 7th War, but his worldview is really out there in the open because of his background, as you’ll see.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s father was born Benzion Mileikowsky on March 25, 1910, in Warsaw, Poland. The Hebrew name Benzion means “Son of Zion”.

The family emigrated to British occupied Palestine in 1920 and changed their name to Netanyahu.

Netanyahu isn’t just a random name they chose. Immigrants to Israel often chose Hebraized names for themselves. Many had traditional meanings. Natan means - gave, as in someone gave something. Yahu is an abbreviation for the word God. Netanyahu means literally a Gift of God.

Benzion Netanyahu - Son of Zion, Gift of God.

Yes, we are in heavy ideological territory here. At the same time, these are not religious people. This is secular Jewish Nationalist Identity Politics.

Benzion Netanyahu became a prominent historian, specializing in the Spanish Inquisition and the history of Jewish persecution in Europe. His seminal work, "The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain" (1995). The book reframes the Spanish Inquisition as a manifestation of racial anti-Semitism rather than a purely religious institution.

Bibi’s father held academic positions at several prestigious universities, including Cornell University in the United States, where he taught Hebrew literature and Jewish history. Benjamin spent formative years in the USA and has the accent to prove it.

He also inherited his father’s world view.

Young Benzion Netanyahu worked as the personal secretary to Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the 1930s, in the USA.

Jabotinsky was the leader of a Zionist splinter group who called themselves the New Zionists, or Zionist Revisionists. Netanyahu was a lifelong follower of Jabotinsky and a solid Revisionist Zionist.

The main thrust of Revisionist thought is outlined in Jabotinsky’s 1923 article, "The Iron Wall: We and the Arabs."

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/mideast/ironwall/ironwall.htm

Mainstream Zionism basically pussy footed around the question of Arab presence in Palestine. They just tried to pretend there was nobody living there. The official motto was “A land without people for a people without a land”.

This way they could grease the wheels in London, Paris, and New York without friction from kind hearted liberals. The question of the Arabs was always going to be tough to answer, if you wanted to make a case for the viability of Jewish Sovereignty in Palestine.

Jabotinsky’s approach was straight forward, no bullshit.

There are Arabs in Palestine and all around Palestine. The Arabs see Zionism as a threat to their own claims to the land. They will never, ever accept a Jewish state.

Worse, there is no hope of a negotiated settlement. No Arab leader would or could truly accept Jewish Sovereignty. Even if they did, they’d be traitors hiding from assassination for the rest of their lives.

Which means that even if they made an agreement, it’s not going to last because the base culture is so deeply set against the chance of Jewish sovereignty.

Jabotinsky proposed that the only way to achieve Jewish sovereignty was through the establishment of the "iron wall" in the title of his article—a strong, unyielding military and political force that would make it clear to the Arabs that they could not defeat the Zionist project.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s world view then, is and was deeply influenced by his ideological upbringing, by an erudite Father who’s research specialization was European Anti-Semitism.

Let’s summarize the weltanschauung:

1. No Way Back:

• The European Christian world is inherently hostile to Jews. It always has been, and always will be.

1. No Possibility of Voluntary Acceptance:

• The Arabs will not accept Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East.

• Therefore, Jewish sovereignty must be won and continue to be won, by an aggressive and realist posture both military and political.

1. Acceptance will follow Strength

• Only when the Arabs run into the Iron Wall enough times will they come to accept the inevitability of Jewish Sovereignty. Once the facticity of Jewish Sovereignty is made abundantly clear, acceptance might eventually follow.

1. Moral Right

• Jewish Sovereignty in Israel is morally justified because of both their rejection by European Christians, and their deep historical roots in the region. Basically, the Arabs should have just moved over a little to make room.

• But, that didn’t happen, so we are where we are and it is what it is.

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This is the core of the Bibi worldview and represents the central pillar of his political existence.

Netanyahu then is ideologically committed, and not a cynical manipulator who only gives a shit about himself.

His slip and slide maneuvers and posturing within the jungle of Israeli politics are all means to an end driven by those core values and the weltanschauung articulated just now.

He is a visionary with his eyes on the maintenance of Jewish Sovereignty in the land of Israel. It’s a long term project. Tactical political maneuvers shouldn’t be mistaken for strategic vision.

Only Bibi and his ultra close allies see it.

Everyone else is short sighted and full of shit.

They are all just fucking around and playing small politics with no real strategic goal for Israel. Not Bibi. He’s got a vision and the guts to stick with it. Iron Wall. Eventually those fuckers will learn that they can’t get rid of us.

Yes, he wants to stay in power and avoid the multitude of stratagems designed to bring him down. But everyone reads him wrong. He’s not interested in power for power’s sake.

He’s a visionary ideologue, a Jewish prince turned King of Israel.

Everyone else is just an idiot who doesn’t know shit. Small time, small minded, particularly those seduced by Christian Universal Values - in other words leftists. Those people are the living embodiment of false consciousness.

Bibi is Daddy’s boy, striding in the shoes of his hero brother Yoni, commander of the Entebbe rescue mission of 1976, and its only Israeli fatality.

Haters look at Bibi and see a cynic and a liar, but they’re short sighted, lacking any vision of the future.

That’s Bibi.

Setting the Stage for October 7th

Let’s try and set the stage for the Hamas attack of October 7th.

Every good story has an inciting incident. For example: Party scene, John and Jenny are dancing. John goes to the toilet and finds the body of a beautiful but tragic woman. Boom - the story takes off.

Clearly, if we were to make a movie about the October 7th war, it probably needs to begin with the Hamas attack as the inciting incident. You could begin elsewhere, but you’d need to make complicated adjustments. We’re going to be simple people. We’ll begin at the beginning.

Consider first the inciting incidents of 2023.

We’ll just isolate them from all other madness…

In October of 2023 Hamas attacks across the border into Israel and kills and kidnaps.

Inciting Incident 1.

The very next day, Hezbollah in the north opens fire against Israel.

Inciting Incident 2.

From these inciting incidents mayhem ensues on all fronts.

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Complications

There are complications that need to be discussed, if we’re to understand the narrative.

In the movie version we probably wouldn’t get into this, but we’re not making a movie.

18 years before the October 7th attacks, another set of inciting incidents serve as a weird kind of mirror image that definitely haunts the current story.

18 years earlier, Hamas invaded Israel and grabbed a soldier.

18 years earlier, Hezbollah joined Hamas in a stupid useless war.

18 years earlier, Israel went ape shit in response.

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Rewind 18 years or so.

• In 2005, Ariel Sharon is prime minister of Israel. He unilaterally withdraws all Israeli civilian settlements from Gaza. At the time, Benjamin Netanyahu was strongly opposed to the Gaza withdrawal.

• Bibi resigned from his position as Finance Minister in the Sharon government in protest against Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. In his resignation letter, he stated:

"I am not willing to be a partner to a move which ignores reality and proceeds blindly toward turning the Gaza Strip over to Hamas-controlled terrorist bases."

and

"Gaza is becoming a base for Islamic terror. Everyone sees this. Hamas is getting stronger and taking credit for what looks like our running away under fire.”

The 2005 withdrawal from Gaza was followed by an election among the Palestinians heavily set up and sponsored by the Americans and international community. The two main parties were the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

Hamas won the election, which for some reason nobody had expected. The response was that the Palestinian Authority simply cancelled the results and refused to hand over power.

In January of 2006, Ariel Sharon has a stroke and is from that moment on in a coma and on life support.

In March of 2006 there are new elections in Israel.

Ehud Olmert - Sharon’s partner - becomes the Prime Minister.

Bibi, viewed as a kind of anti-peace refusenik, is the leader of the opposition to the current government.

The Mirror War - 2006 - Gaza / Lebanon

Here comes the mirror image.

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• On June 25, 2006, Hamas, carried out a cross-border raid into Israel, attacking an Israeli military post near Kerem Shalom.

• They killed two soldiers, wounded others, and captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who becomes a hostage.

• In response, Israel launched airstrikes and a limited ground offensive into Gaza. The stated goal is to force Hamas to stop sending rockets and to release the hostage.

• On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid into Israel from southern Lebanon.

• They attack an Israeli military patrol near the Israeli town of Zar'it, killing three soldiers and capturing two.

• In response, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a large-scale military operation in Lebanon, aiming to recover the soldiers and eliminate Hezbollah's military capabilities.

• The war lasts for around a month and the IDF fail in all of their strategic aims.

• In Lebanon, they don’t recover the living hostages. They don’t manage to suppress Hezbollah rocket fire. They only manage to secure a UN resolution which is never honored by either side, but most grossly ignored by Hezbollah.

• In Gaza, the Israelis fail as well. Gilad Shalit was only released five years later in 2011, at the cost of more than a thousand Hamas militants imprisoned in Israeli jails. Sinwar and other future leaders of the October 7th massacre was among those released.

But not only were the wars a failure in military terms.

The Israelis were widely blamed for the war - with images of destruction in Lebanon and Gaza circulating around the world and drawing condemnation from literally everyone. Nobody really gave a shit about the inciting incidents. Images of dead children and bombed houses dominate the clicks, period!

Hezbollah and Iran

The final thing that we need to set up here is the Hezbollah / Iran connection, linked to the Israeli perception that they had lost the 2006 war.

From Bibi’s perspective - which at the moment is ours - the withdrawal from Gaza was the inciting incident of the 2006 war, not the Hamas attack from Gaza and the taking of Gilad Shalit as a hostage.

Withdrawal of Israeli settlements and military forces from Gaza had the following effects.

• Loss of Israeli control - loss of awareness. Loss of access to informants.

• Arab perception of weakness - the withdrawal was “read” in the middle east as a victory for Hamas. After all, they managed to harass the Israelis sufficiently to force the withdrawal.

• Creation of a power vacuum which sucked in the most extreme elements - Hamas

The inciting incident of withdrawal in 2005 was followed by the 2006 war, almost as a matter of procedure. Meaning, one flowed naturally from the other, like water down hill.

And in exactly the same way, the Israeli failure in 2006 had the following procedural consequences.

• Iran doubled down on investment in Hezbollah, who had proven themselves against the IDF. Over the next 18 years Hezbollah’s strength would be multiplied, almost exponentially.

• Ditto for Hamas in Gaza. They were seen as victorious and strong. The IDF had blown the shit out of both Southern Lebanon and Gaza, and in each case had been unable to definitively conquer a materially inferior force.

• The Arab and Iranian narrative was the following:

  • Embedding military structures into the civilian fabric works against an enemy connected to the globalized liberal world. An enemy that cares what the New York Times says. An enemy like that literally doesn’t have a clue what to do. The Zionist enemy is confused and morally sapped by the Islamic resistance.

So let’s summarize the strategic equation at this point, 18 years before the current war.

Bibi alone warned against withdrawal from Gaza.

And he was proven correct.

Removing forces and civilian settlements from Gaza created a vacuum of power there that sucked in and emboldened the most extreme elements.

Sharon had said: “Disengagement will strengthen Israel in the long term. It will reduce friction with the Palestinian population and enable us to better focus on our security challenges.” And, “We must preserve the Jewish majority in the State of Israel. Disengagement from Gaza will help us achieve this.”

Bibi knew that none of this had worked.

Israel might have improved its image in the short term, among allies in the West, but the war of 2006 was an inevitability that removed that temporary gain.

Plus, the Iranians had a proof of concept in Hezbollah. Now, they had begun to construct their “Ring of Fire”, the establishment of proxy forces surrounding Israel that could chip away at Jewish Sovereignty one rocket at a time.

Another quote from Bibi from his 2005 resignation letter:

"Gaza is becoming a base for Islamic terror. Everyone sees this. Hamas is getting stronger and taking credit for what looks like our running away under fire.”

And Bibi is proven right.

Let’s fast forward 18 years.

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Bibi’s War

The blowback from the 2006 war resulted in new Israeli elections. Netanyahu came back to power in 2009. Since then, Bibi has been the prime minister for more than 12 out of the 14 intervening years. Like the UK, Israel has no term limits for prime minister.

Between 2009 and 2023 Netanyahu managed a status quo situation, in regards to the conflict.

Behind the scenes, everyone was preparing for the next round.

Clearly, the real next round came in October 2023. I’m now going to narrate the war according to the Bibi view. Recall, from this perspective Bibi is the only one with strategic vision. Everyone else gets confused by the local, tactical events that dominate news cycles. Almost nobody is able to maintain a long term visionary perspective.

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The Hamas attack in October of 2023 shocks everyone.

Firstly, because nobody thought the danger was in Gaza. The danger was obviously in Lebanon, with Hezbollah.

For Bibi, Gaza is, was, and remains an unfortunate place that nobody knows what to do with. Not the Israelis, not the Egyptians, not even the Palestinians. It’s literally a flat hell hole on the coast with 2 million Palestinians trapped in poverty. Basically, the humanitarian move would be to relocate them in the Sinai desert, where rich gulf arabs can build them a luxury city on the med and solve the problem once and for all.

But that’s not going to happen.

And, the barbarians managed to take over 200 hostages.

Essentially… this is a seriously fucked up situation that Bibi needs to deal with carefully and slowly. Cos, it’s also a potential opportunity (as every strategist knows - within great catastrophe lies great opportunity).

At this point, the Israeli public and the IDF need blood. They are basically straining at the leash. Fucking Yoav Gallant and some of the IDF brass want to hit Hezbollah first. They’ve got capabilities there that nobody yet knows of and they’re ready to rock.

Bibi doesn’t agree. He sees a limited opportunity in Gaza. Plus, it’s the most obvious legitimate target. The rest of the world won’t understand the Lebanon connection.

So Bibi let’s the dogs loose on Gaza. What he won’t do, under any circumstances, is allow Hamas to succeed in their gambit. No fucking way will the hostage precedent be repeated again. Remember, the 2011 exchange of over a thousand Palestinian murderers for a single Israeli weakling was a complete disaster.

The opposite needs to happen now.

Think about this for a minute. If Hamas manages to get away with taking 200+ Israeli hostages and surviving, what will procedurally follow from this?

Endless attempts at border raids to capture Israeli hostages.

The enemy need to be taught that an Israeli hostages is worth than worthless, it’s a guarantee that your life and your civilization is erased. Take a hostage, lose a city.

All around Bibi are morons who don’t get this. These people are literally dangerous to national security. They should be locked up until the war’s over. Oh well, can’t do that. We’re a democracy.

As for the Americans, just say yes and do the opposite. They are worse than clueless, but being Americans they’re naive as well.

Dodging a Cease Fire and De-Escalation

By December of 2023 Gaza is ruined. The total Palestinian fatalities are on the order of 30-40,000. Almost half of which are Hamas combatants, according to the IDF.

Netanyahu has managed to get half the hostages back for pretty much no cost. Once Hamas realized that this wasn’t going to be Shalit 2.0 they reneged on the deal and gave Netanyahu the legitimacy to claim that it was their fault.

Because you have to maintain relations with the Americans!

The world is in a state of chaotic confusion when it comes to understanding, or reading, the events in Israel. Nobody understands shit, but at least the anti-semites are being revealed, crawling out of their holes in London and elsewhere. This is both shocking and interesting.

It certainly confirms the IRON WALL theory.

At the same time, Hezbollah is systematically destroying houses in northern Israeli villages. They sit up on high ground and just pick off targets with Iranian supplied anti-tank missiles. The IDF responds, but the focus is on Gaza, where they are systematically diminishing the enemy.

The Iranians are sitting pretty too, just kind of watching and gleefully rubbing their hands. They need to be dealt with, but one thing at a time.

The Americans are better than the fucking Nazi Europeans and the UN, but this idiotic Biden administration with Antony fucking Blinken is constantly doing stupid things, basically egging on the enemy and dragging everything out.

Every time Blinken and Biden calls for a cease fire, Hamas stops negotiating.

Bibi doesn’t even speak to these people anymore. How can they not get it?

What’s the Hamas strategy? Wait for a cease fire, guaranteed by America and then come out of the tunnels for a victory lap. Which basically means the war continues forever.

What Bibi knows is this: Fuck that, now and forever. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Iron wall motherfucker.

This is the thing, at some point, Bibi seems to have understood that it was possible to change the strategic picture.

Rafah

The biggest fuck you to the Americans was the Rafah operation.

Rafah, is a town split by the border between Gaza and Egypt. Arms and supplies to Hamas have come across that border, and through tunnels underneath it. The Americans have consistently opposed Israeli entry into Rafah, mostly because of the perception that this would entail massive civilian casualties.

In February 2024, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated that any major military operation in Rafah would be a "disaster," and the U.S. would not support it.

Isn’t war the definition of disaster?

The US publicly withheld a shipment of arms from Israel over this question. Still pending.

In May the IDF went into Rafah, sealing off the border between Gaza and Egypt. This, essentially concluded the Gaza campaign.

It was time to turn north.

The Reversal

The opening of the northern front began on October 7th, 2023, when Hezbollah decided to join in with Hamas and tie themselves to Gaza.

Let’s go down the timeline of events.

April 1, 2024: Iranian consulate complex in Damascus, Syria, resulting in the deaths of several Iranian military officials. Among those killed were Major General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the commander of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, and other officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

April 13, 2024: First Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel.

April 19, 2024: Israeli response takes out a single S-400 ground to air missile defense system guarding a key nuclear site.

July 3, 2024: Mohammed Nasser, responsible for overseeing Hezbollah's arsenal of rockets and missiles in the region

July 24, 2024: Bibi speech to congress. Both President Biden and Kamala Harris refuse to attend.

July 30, 2024: Fuad Shukr. Nasrallah buddy and head of southern lebanon operations. Basically chief of staff of the Hezbollah military. The guy was wanted by the USA for the Marine barracks bombing of 1983.

July 31, 2024: Hanieyeh assassination in Tehran.

September 17-18th: Pager and Walkie Talkie Attack. This requires an entire episode / post of its own. In retrospect, it’s impossible to understand this war without the knowledge that the Israelis possessed the pager and walkie talkie capabilities the entire time. Impossible to understand political and military decisions taken without considering that at all times they knew that Hezbollah could be taken out in a single click of the mouse. Probably, they didn’t know that it would work so well.

September 20, 2024, Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah commander and head of the group's operations.

September 27, 2024: Netanyahu addresses the United Nations General Assembly. Immediately afterwards, Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah and the remainder of the high command are obliterated with over 80 tons worth of precision guided munitions.

October 1, 2024: Second Iranian attack on Israel. IDF ground operation begins in South Lebanon.

October 16, 2024: Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip is killed.

October 26, 2024: Israeli attack clearing Iranian air defense systems and destroying nuclear mixers.

November 5, 2024: US elects Trump.

November 27, 2024: Syrian rebels begin taking down Assad regime.

Secret dungeons were found in Sednaya Prison, along with a single mass grave that experts estimate contains the remains of at least 100,000 Syrians. Other such mass graves are expected to be found. That’s not including the 500 to 600,000 Syrians previously known to have been killed by the regime during the civil war.

Now, 10 days before the US presidential inauguration, there are expectations that the IDF will get US backing to finally take out the Iranian nuclear program and put an end to a conflict which is on the scale of a world war.

US Elections

Just a note on the US Elections. Do you think that Trump would have won if the Israelis had not turned the tide?

The Gaza war issue has played out in US Politics. Recall the campus stuff and all the brouhaha between democrats and republicans.

Recall that both Biden and Harris thought it was appropriate to NOT attend Netanyahu’s address to congress.

Let’s take a look at US election forecasts on Polymarket for late summer 2024.

Harris replaces Biden around the middle of July.

For a while they go neck and neck.

The Trump takeoff starts in the beginning of October, 2024, and ends up 67% to 33% for Harris.

The actual results in electoral college votes were 58 to 42.

Disclaimer and Wrap Up

I know that this gloss on Bibi will enrage many people, including my friends.

I hope you can take it all with a pinch of salt. It’s a narrative, and if you don’t like it, you’re free to choose your own. Make your case.

My conclusion here is simple.

Nobody.

Knows.

Shit.

The commentariat are clueless. Don’t listen to any of them.

Conventional wisdom was that Bibi’s lies and self serving ego would destroy Israel. This isn’t how it turned out. It’s difficult to pull apart the inside of Bibi’s head. Many will say that even though the Israeli results are impressive, it’s not Bibi and the fact that he just happens to be PM is a coincidence.

In fact, Bibi’s only doing it to save himself from the ongoing criminal cases against him.

We’ll reserve judgement on that.

I’ve seen the films and the evidence and here’s my opinion. The stuff about champagne and cigars is whatever. It’s meh. Oligarchs buying things for politicians seems to be quite normal.

In September 2024, Prime Minister Starmer was revealed to have received his clothes from a leading Labor party donor. Turns out all the top politicians do this. Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to afford to look “statesman like”. This isn’t America, where every politician’s a millionaire.

The allegations around Walla and buying influence in the media are more serious. So, we’ll wait and see how that ends up.