{"id":73723,"date":"2025-09-19T16:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T16:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/73723\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T16:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T16:42:10","slug":"netanyahus-super-sparta-vision-met-with-anger-in-israel-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/73723\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu\u2019s \u2018super-Sparta\u2019 vision met with anger in Israel \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israelis<\/a> were given a rare glimpse of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u2019s vision for the future this week. It sent shock waves through the country and saw stock markets plummet. <\/p>\n

His speech at a conference in Jerusalem came after almost two years of war<\/a> and just before Israel launched a ground offensive on Gaza City. Netanyahu acknowledged the country\u2019s unprecedented international isolation but gave little hope to Israelis who are yearning for a return to a normal life.<\/p>\n

He blamed Israel\u2019s isolation not on his own policies and the never-ending war on multiple fronts, but on \u201climitless migration\u201d of Muslims to western Europe, where he said they had become a \u201csignificant minority \u2013 very vocal, very, very belligerent,\u201d and a digital revolution that has led Qatar, China and other countries to invest in social-media platforms that promote an \u201canti-Israel agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n

And his solution to Israel\u2019s isolation? \u201cWe will increasingly need to adapt to an economy with autarkic [economically independent] characteristics. We may find ourselves in a situation where our arms industries are blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a scenario of \u201cAthens and Sparta,\u201d he said, Israel will \u201chave to become Athens and super-Sparta. There\u2019s no choice. In the coming years, at least, we will have to deal with these attempts to isolate us. What\u2019s worked until now will not work from now on.\u201d<\/p>\n

As if to underline his message, on the very same day the European Commission<\/a> discussed suspending part of the Israel-EU trade agreement, more states pledged to recognise Palestine, and other countries threatened to withdraw from next year\u2019s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel took part.<\/p>\n

Many Israelis were horrified by the historical analogy with Sparta, known for its rigid military culture and austere way of life, which deliberately limited contact with the outside world. Historians also pointed out that Sparta lost its wars and was destroyed. Israelis shuddered at the vision of perpetual conflict combined with global pariah status.<\/p>\n

The markets were not happy either. The Tel Aviv stock exchange plummeted and the shekel fell sharply against foreign currencies.<\/p>\n

Netanyhu\u2019s bleak vision was greeted by criticism from business and unions alike. The Israel Business Forum, representing 200 of Israel\u2019s largest companies, said: \u201cWe are not Sparta.\u201d It warned that Netanyahu\u2019s policies were marching the country \u201ctowards a political, economic and social abyss that will endanger our existence in Israel\u201d. The head of the Histadrut trade union federation, Arnon Bar-David, said: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be Sparta … We deserve peace. Israeli society is exhausted, and our status in the world is very bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yossi Verter, a columnist of the liberal newspaper Haaretz, said Netanyahu had turned the Start-Up Nation into the Sparta Nation by giving a realistic depiction of Israel\u2019s standing in the world.<\/p>\n

Realising the damage he had caused, Netanyahu spent the next few days trying to backtrack. In a rather muddled press conference he claimed his comments had been misunderstood, stressing that the only area in which Israel risked isolation was in arms manufacturing. He reiterated that he had \u201cfull confidence\u201d in the country\u2019s economy, praising foreign investments. <\/p>\n

But for most Israelis this was too little, too late: the cat was out of the bag.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu\u2019s Spartan vision was no casual slip of the tongue, despite attempts to downplay its significance after the harsh market reaction,\u201d wrote Amos Harel, the veteran Haaretz military correspondent. \u201cNetanyahu is paranoid, isolated and fighting with all his might to survive politically. At the same time, he is haunted by the judgment of history. His plans reveal genuine, if shallow, attempts to craft an alternative reality.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israelis were given a rare glimpse of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu\u2019s vision for the future this week. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6222,9,10,18,5766,13,14,3761,6,19,17,71,6220,3857,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-73723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-binyamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-european-commission","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-gaza-strip","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-israel","20":"tag-israel-defence-forces","21":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","22":"tag-latest-news","23":"tag-latestnews","24":"tag-main-news","25":"tag-mainnews","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}