Let’s give credit where credit is due. Over the last 16 years, Netanyahu has done an impressive job of ensuring Israel’s future will be better by letting problems grow and fester until they became impossible to ignore. • Without Netanyahu, many might still think a Palestinian state next door was manageable. Failing to prevent October 7 and then failing to defeat Hamas after years of war have made the risks impossible to dismiss. • Without Netanyahu, Haredi draft exemptions might have stayed a hidden compromise. Refusing to draft them during the longest war in Israel’s history turned the issue into a permanent political flashpoint even with the young. • Without Netanyahu, some might still have seen Qatar as a constructive partner. Instead, he allowed Qatari cash to Hamas, Qatari payments to his media advisors, and Qatari-backed Al Jazeera to broadcast their genocide libel from Israel, making clear to all Israelis that Qatar is an enemy state. • Without Netanyahu forming governments with anti-Zionist Haredi parties that dismiss and insult Reform Jewish Americans, it would have been easier to maintain the relationship with the largest Zionist community in the diaspora. His indifference to their alienation made Israel more vulnerable. • Without Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul and the fight it triggered, fewer people would have confronted how easily Israel’s political system can be rewritten every year by a simple majority—and why a constitution to protect all our rights is absolutely necessary. • Without Netanyahu embracing Ben Gvir and Avi Maoz, it would have been easier to pretend Jewish terrorism and extremists in government were fringe and not tolerated by anyone in the Israeli mainstream. • Without Netanyahu, government influence on the media would feel abstract. By engineering a free newspaper for his base and passing legislation to allow a news channel dedicated to echoing his own voice, the Prime Minister’s power over Israeli media became obvious to all. Netanyahu doesn’t deserve the blame for making the problems. But he gets the credit for making the problems undeniable.