Can Netanyahu learn from Theodore Roosevelt and step aside to save Likud? - opinion

Exactly 12 years ago, Avishay Braverman, then a Labor MK and chairman of the Knesset's Economic Affairs Committee, claimed that Theodore Roosevelt, US president some 120 years ago, was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's “cultural hero.”The remarks were made during a discussion of the natural gas sector, the day after a meeting between the two. Braverman wanted to advance price controls in the absence of sufficient competition and invoked the American president who fought the “robber barons.”The message was clear: if Netanyahu admired Roosevelt, he should follow his example when confronting concentrations of economic power. As early as 2012, Braverman had said that, in their conversations, Netanyahu himself had brought up Roosevelt and his struggle against powerful industrialists.Netanyahu, too, publicly used one of Roosevelt's most famous sayings. At the Herzliya Conference in January 2006, speaking about the Iranian threat, he recommended that the government adopt the advice: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Real strength, coupled with restraint in speech.Roosevelt remains one of the most highly regarded presidents in American history. In an expert survey published in 2024, he ranked fourth, after Lincoln, FDR, and Washington. A leader of extraordinary charisma and energy, he knew how to turn his personality into political power and establish a direct connection with the public.But there is another chapter in the president's biography: his…