Australian mining magnate Joseph Gutnick, who coined the slogan “Netanyahu is good for the Jews” and who in 1996 was instrumental in crowning “King Bibi,” now wants Benjamin Netanyahu to step down.
Once a close friend and confidant of Netanyahu, Gutnick, who is currently visiting Israel, said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that he no longer supports him and believes that he is not the right person to be prime minister.
Choosing a business model to explain his change of attitude, he said, “When you’re the CEO of a company in any type of business, and the company doesn’t perform well, the CEO resigns.”
Gutnick accuses Netanyahu of repeated procrastination in taking action against Hamas, and of continuing procrastination in creating a state commission of inquiry into what happened on October 7, 2023 – why it happened, who was responsible, who resigned, and, most important, why the government headed by Netanyahu does not take responsibility and has for so long allowed a Palestinian “pay-for-slay” policy.
“He was the one responsible for what happened in Gaza and for missed opportunities in normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia,” Gutnick said. “He’s made too many excuses.”
The Australian businessman went on to say Netanyahu never accepts responsibility for flaws or failure, and always blames someone else.
The main reason for a falling out between Gutnick and Netanyahu was that the prime minister “doesn’t tolerate anyone who disagrees with him. He called me his soul mate until I disagreed with him. We used to argue all the time. He’s made one mistake after another.”
These days, he regards Netanyahu as “a self-important narcissist.”
IN GUTNICK’S opinion, it would be in both Israel and world Jewry’s best interests for new elections to be called as soon as possible.
Aware of Likud’s rising popularity according to pollsters, he proposes that Netanyahu be ousted by Likud. “He doesn’t deserve to be prime minister.”
Refusal to name possible successor
Gutnick refused to name a possible successor, other than to say it should be a person from the Right who does not believe in a two-state solution but does believe in treating Palestinians fairly and giving them the same rights as those accorded to Jewish Israelis, providing the Palestinians are loyal to Israel.
His role model is the late prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, whom he described as an idealist and a man of principle, whereas Netanyahu “has his own agenda.”
As for a future leader, “there are a lot of good people,” he said, but insisted that it would be unfair for him to name anyone. Several years ago, he thought of former minister Ayelet Shaked as a possible successor, when Netanyahu would eventually quit politics – but not anymore.
Despite the global spike in antisemitism, Gutnick doubts that Netanyahu cares much for Diaspora Jewry. “He ignores Jews in the Diaspora except for those who are on his side,” he said.
Regardless of whose side they’re on, Gutnick pointed out that every Jew in the world is affected by what happens in Israel. This has been painfully obvious since the Hamas massacre.
ASIDE FROM everything related to the October 7 catastrophe, he is angry with Netanyahu for failing to show appreciation to the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, whom Gutnick took Netanyahu to meet in 1996 prior to his first term as prime minister.
“Where were you since 1996?” he asked. “Why haven’t you visited the Rebbe’s graveside?”
The question is particularly pertinent as Chabadniks around the world are marking the 75th anniversary of the Rebbe succeeding his father-in-law as global leader of Chabad Hassidim. When Gutnick took Netanyahu to meet him, it wasn’t just for the sake of being in the presence of a great man; it was to receive advice. There are countless individual success stories resulting from people following advice given to them by the Rebbe.
Gutnick himself is one of them. An ordained Chabad rabbi, he worked as a teacher until the Rebbe advised him to change course and go into mining.
To some extent, Netanyahu owes his political career to the Rebbe. In his early years in office, he was an excellent and successful prime minister, but then in Gutnick’s perception, he began to believe that “no one else could run the country,” adding that “Netanyahu squashes anyone with leadership talent.”
Gutnick also gives short shrift to Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, whom he sees as an opportunist who acts for political expediency, and who serves as Netanyahu’s lackey, always doing whatever the prime minister wants.
An Orthodox rabbi himself, he makes it clear that the opinions he expresses in Israel are as an appointed emissary of the Rebbe but not as part of the Chabad leadership. The movement has its own leaders in Israel, and although Gutnick has been a generous donor to various Chabad projects, primarily in Jerusalem and the Galilee, he does not interfere with anything Chabad is doing in Israel.
However, as a well-known philanthropist who has given millions of dollars to facilitate projects in Israel, he feels he has the right to express his opinion, albeit not the right to vote, because he does not live in the country.
AS MUCH as he cares about the release of the hostages, and is horrified by learning of the suffering of those who have been released, he thinks it is wrong to give in to terrorists or to make concessions to them.
He believes in capital punishment for terrorists, and cannot reconcile himself to the idea that killers, rapists, and kidnappers are set free. At this stage, no one knows the consequences of that, he conceded, “but we will know in a few years after letting them out.”
Given the bungling that made the Hamas incursion possible, Gutnick said it was a miracle that they didn’t penetrate further.
Asked about haredi (ultra-Orthodox) resistance to army service, he said someone like King Solomon is needed to resolve that issue.
Questioned as to whether he, like other people of considerable affluence, had given gifts to the Netanyahus, he said he didn’t want to go there, but admitted that many years ago, he had brought the prime minister, his wife, and their two sons to Australia.
When he is in Israel, Gutnick always makes his base in Jerusalem. Like many who live in the capital, he finds the thrust of urban renewal disquieting. “Jerusalem is not a place for hi-tech buildings,” he stated. “Jerusalem is losing the beauty of its character.”
Chabad is prominent wherever there are Jewish communities, particularly in Russia and Ukraine. Given the hostilities between the two countries, the Post asked him how this affects Chabad relationships. He replied that whichever side loses in the war between Russia and Ukraine, “they’ll blame the Jews.”
Gutnick currently divides his time between Melbourne, which is where he has his permanent home, and Tasmania, where he has new, lucrative mining interests.
Asked whether antisemitism is as rabid in Tasmania as it is in Melbourne and Sydney, he responded: “There are nasty people everywhere.”