Hello again
We're back, new title, new purpose
When I first imagined a Substack, it was in the hope of transmitting details from Netanyahu’s trial— details that I knew were significant beyond the courthouse walls, significant even beyond Israel’s borders, in other countries struggling with democracy, yet details that didn’t make it into international media coverage.
From the start, on the days I went to trial, two main issues caught my interest: The first, that Netanyahu did not seem to be mounting a legal defense. The second, that testimony relating to his management style, even if incidental, or from friendly witnesses, revealed a man operating as a mafia don, not as a head of government.
Both those issues remain germane today, on Day 98 and the last day of Netanyahu’s personal testimony in this trial, which he dragged out for years, far longer than anyone thought possible.
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Israel has changed to something almost irrecognizible since I first thought of starting this Substack, yet Netanyahu remains the same, in place.
I’ve changed the title from “Bibi’s Business,” an allusion to what I was learning about how Netanyahu operates— a style of business that brought him, an incumbent prime minister, to face justice in court— to “Bibi and Beyond,” because Israel now finds itself on a precipice, and the next few months are likely to be determinative.
More soon.
Why do you call him Bibi? This is a nickname, a bit like a term of endearment, no? I wish people would use his surname.
Would you consider covering my family's history of being scattered throughout Americas, South Africa, Australia, Asia and Europe fleeing Nazis in 1920s-40s, they were a German Jewish family dynasty of doctors, biologists, pharmacists, mathematicians, engineers, and leather-fine furs importers, from 1870s-1940s, similar to Rothschild family in field of finance since 1700s rooted in one man with a handful of sons spreading abroad and networking together. Seeking to have a stumbling stone placed at Kaiser Wilhelm Street 44 where my great grandfather and family were arrested and deported to Riga, then he was sent to Lager Manowice where last seen. Placed near his niece's Edith Rosenthal that lived around the corner. His pharmacy where he lived above on 3rd floor and operated with son was only a mile walk away from the university where his cousin Professor Ludwig Brieger worked until l 1919 for Robert Koch.