Of mice and men, and Netanyahu

The murder of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh is not a cause for celebration, no matter on which side of the political divide you sit. It was an international criminal act which has brought the whole world closer to the abyss of world war, but was initiated, I fear, to influence the US presidential election.

I am in no doubt that we have arrived at this point because not one single leader, or so-called “friend of Israel”, in the Western world, dared to challenge or even try to rein-in the rogue apartheid state. As long as the US stands by Tel Aviv not one leader elsewhere in the West has the moral compass or courage to criticise Israel for any or all of its genocidal actions. Without the support of the US president and the bought and paid-for members of Congress, Israel could not survive. Whoever is in the White House is the real power behind Israel’s political leadership, even if the US president’s arm is twisted tightly up their back from day one.

Haniyeh’s killing is, I believe, a response to US presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, who gave Benjamin Netanyahu a cold shoulder when she intentionally ignored his arrival in Washington last week. It is clear that if Netanyahu could have his way, Donald Trump will be the next US president. Trump is probably the only man on the planet who can save the career of the Israeli leader.

It is no secret that both men share an intense dislike of all things Iranian and have done their utmost to disrupt any negotiations with Tehran. Many observers believe that they are intent on war with Iran which, despite global warnings, will probably trigger another World War.

By ordering a missile strike on Tehran to murder Haniyeh — who was in Iran to attend the inauguration of new President Masoud Pezeshkian — Netanyahu has given a serious boost to Trump’s chances of winning on 5 November. He has also destroyed the ceasefire talks between Israel and the Palestinians by killing Hamas’s chief negotiator.

This buys Netanyahu time to stretch out the war in Gaza for months instead of weeks.

READ: Qatar PM asks, ‘How can mediation succeed when one side assassinates negotiator?

It is known widely that once the war is over, Netanyahu’s political career will be too — he still faces corruption charges in Israel — but by sabotaging a ceasefire deal he has saved his own skin, for now. I once described Netanyahu as the most dangerous man on the planet, and I stand by that description: we are looking at someone who will go to extreme lengths to save his own career. Kill 40,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children? No problem. Order the political murder of a Hamas official who was, essentially, a diplomat? No problem. What won’t the madman do? Kamala Harris is now reaping the whirlwind for trying to show her abrasive side to Netanyahu.

Should his deadly strategy work and Trump does get elected, any diplomatic moves between America and Iran will be scuppered. Tel Aviv has done everything in its power to undermine and sabotage US-Iran diplomatic moves first attempted by the Obama administration.

It is significant that Pezeshkian, a cardiac surgeon and reformist politician, was more than open to the idea of Tehran re-engaging with Washington. This missile strike will have changed all of that, as Israel’s deadly shadow war takes a new turn.

Iran raised the red flag of revenge on the dome of the Jamkaran Mosque in the city of Qom within hours of the missile strike which killed the Hamas leader. This single act alone will send a chill through the corridors of those Western powers hopeful of reopening diplomatic channels with the new Iranian president.

This is the second time that Tehran has been humiliated by Israel on the world stage recently. The rogue state’s bombing of the Iranian Consulate in Damascus on 1 April sent a message that Iran’s allies were no longer safe, and to strike at the heart of Tehran will be seen as a valid reason for war.

OPINION: Haniyeh was the pragmatic leader of Hamas

Many of us fear that Iran has no other option but to retaliate, and the flying of the red flag tends to suggest that a backlash is coming, likely both swift and deadly. I believe that Netanyahu has just lit the fuse to a regional war that will almost certainly suck in the US. Israel is unable to win such a war on its own, and it is clear that war criminal Netanyahu is prepared to gamble Israel’s future on US support.

Meanwhile, the lame duck US President Joe Biden is incapable of making any strategic decisions and his vice president Harris has already been weakened and outmanoeuvred by the Israeli prime minister. If she wants to win in November, she will not be able to stand up and challenge Israel without losing the votes of tens of millions of Christian Zionists pushing for Doomsday.

From where I’m sitting, a regional war against Iran, Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, Syria and the Houthis in Yemen is looking extremely likely. Of course, all of this could have been avoided had the UN and influential state players called for and insisted on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza last October.

I really don’t know where all of this is heading, but the Arab leaders must now find a spine otherwise the occupation state will morph into Greater Israel as demanded by the settler-colonial ideology of Zionism, taking in huge swathes of land in Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Who remembers Israel’s version of “From the river to the sea” as outlined by Netanyahu during a speech before the UN General Assembly on 22 September last year? He held up a map revealing Israel stretching from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan. “An extraordinary change, a monumental change,” he intoned.

Netanyahu’s “New Middle East” has no place for a State of Palestine.

And that is just the beginning, as the leaderships in Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia must understand.

None of this was lost on Haniyeh, and while Israelis may believe that they have won a huge victory by killing the Hamas leader, they’ve actually delivered him martyrdom, which was always his ultimate goal. Believing Muslims today will be recalling the Qur’anic verse of Surah An-Anfal 30: “And remember, O Prophet, when the disbelievers conspired to capture, kill, or exile you. They planned, but Allah also planned. And Allah is the best of planners.”

It is a verse that Netanyahu, in his arrogance, will do well to consider. His calculations have not taken account of the impact that Haniyeh’s martyrdom will have on his people. The Israeli leader may well have re-ignited and reinforced the Palestinian resistance groups into a unified liberation movement.

Like John Steinbeck’s fictional characters in Of Mice and Men, Netanyahu has a dream, a nightmare vision for most of us, which may well bring about his demise. No matter how carefully the Zionist project was planned, something may still send it skidding off the rails. And that something may well be — God Willing — Netanyahu’s latest gamble.

OPINION: It’s both criminal and desperate; that’s why Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.