Health Crisis and Political Crisis: Benjamin Netanyahu's Double Rhetorical Maneuver during COVID-19

Abstract

This article analyzes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first speeches on COVID-19, in the context of the unique political crisis in which Israel was plunged when the pandemic broke out. It suggests that Netanyahu's rhetoric was not aimed, similarly to that of other Western leaders, uniquely at persuading his audience to obey liberticidal regulations that were imposed—and thereby build his authority and legitimacy, as well as the legitimacy of the measures advocated against the pandemic; but that it was also aimed at reconstructing and rehabilitating his ethos (impaired by his indictment), repositioning him as head of State, as the only leader capable of managing a crisis of such magnitude, and thus of leading the country; and finally, at convincing his political rival to join a so-called “emergency national unity” government.