To keep up with the Israeli rhythm of introducing a new scandal every week, Israel is now in the thick of the “Naftali Bennett and Kafr Kana affair.” It began with a newspaper article and a Facebook post, and turned into a confrontation between Economy and Trade Minister Bennett and two journalists identified with the left (Yigal Sarna from Yedioth Ahronoth and Raviv Drucker from Israeli TV Channel 10). Instead of weakening Bennett, this affair will strengthen him. The Israeli left will prove once again that no one can compete with it when it comes to shooting itself in the foot.
Let’s return to April 1996, about half a year after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. Former President Shimon Peres was acting prime minister, and elections were to be held in a few weeks’ time. There was great tension on Israel’s northern front: Hezbollah was firing heavy barrages of Katyusha rockets on northern Israeli population centers and all international mediation efforts to lower the flames in that arena failed. On April 9, an especially massive salvo was fired at the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona and other population centers. Peres decided that there was no alternative but to embark on the Grapes of Wrath operation. This move was designed to put great pressure on the southern Lebanese population, so that it would migrate northward and force the Lebanese government to rein in Hezbollah.
