Taming Netanyahu

October brought with it the first anniversary of Hamas’s incursion into Israel. Those who call it an act of terror tend to willingly ignore the brutalities and atrocities Israelis have been wrecking against Palestinians for decades. Like every state that has practiced apartheid in the past, Israel too continues to dehumanise Palestinians as it moves to obliterate them. The claim of “self-defence” can accord no right to commit genocide or justify burning people alive or forcing millions to die as a result of a lack of food and water.

Israel’s late Prime Minister Menachem Begin described Palestinians in his speech to the Knesset as “beasts walking on two legs”, while Israeli belligerent, Yitzhak Rabin, called them “grasshoppers” who “could be crushed”. Taking a cue from the playbook of his predecessors, recently sacked Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, said Israel was fighting “human animals”.

One has every right to offer multiple interpretations to Hamas’s operation on 7 October 2023, but there is no equivalence between what Hamas did in its three-hour operation and what Israeli occupation forces are doing in, around and beyond Gaza in the name of “self-defence”.

Outgoing US President, Joe Biden, not only extended unwavering support for Israel after 7 October in the form of huge economic packages and military aid, but also reiterated that he was a “Zionist”. According to estimates by the Costs of War Project at Brown University, the United States spent $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel from October 2023 to October 2024, a record for a single year. This support leaves no doubt that the US is anything but a serious mediator in any future truce deal.

The state of Israel was planted in the region as a military outpost of the Western imperialist powers to control the oil wealth of the Arab world. The brutal army of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not merely fighting a war of “self-defence”, but also waging a war to occupy more territories across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and to consolidate its apartheid mechanism by depriving Palestinians of anything they could claim as their own.

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As the war expands, many are asking what makes Netanyahu so powerful, a maverick that has dashed every effort to prevent him from slaughtering innocents in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria and Lebanon. Why have the repeated US and global calls, along with the UNSC resolutions seeking an immediate ceasefire, failed to move Netanyahu. These institutions, established with high noble objectives, seem to have become either redundant or left to the mercy of a few who impose their will on all. UN resolutions have failed to stop Netanyahu in the past, and an arrest warrant against him issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) has changed nothing on the ground.

Perhaps no prime minister in the history of Israel has learnt the art of coercing and pleasing US policy makers to achieve everything desirable for Israel better than Netanyahu. Having reached the highpoint of his power under the tenure of both the Democrats and Republicans, Netanyahu  knows quite well how to manipulate the Democrat-Republican race of loyalty towards Israel for his own political gains.

Netanyahu is the only head of state in the world to address US Congress four times. In his latest address, while he was talking of protecting the civilised world, his brutal army was immersed in act of genocide that continues today. He knows the limitation of any political or diplomatic pressure a nation or an institution can exert against a country if the nation is powerful enough to stand up to these pressures. Afterall, Israel has witnessed the gradual erosion of institutions like the UN, UNSC, ICC, ICJ over the decades in the face of the hegemonic politics of the US and so Tel Aviv has focussed on strengthening mutual ties with countries rather than showing any regard to these toothless institutions.

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In today’s chaotic world, the US is the only nation that could intervene militarily on behalf of others as it is doing for Israel now. In such a given political reality and such sway of political realism, expecting any nation to reign in Netanyahu or his military onslaught through armed action or economic coercion would be too ridiculous an ambition.

Arab states too continue to turn their backs on Palestine, opting only to issue statements which have no meaning or ability to alter events on the ground.

Over the last five decades since the Camp David Accord between Israel and Egypt in 1979, no Arab nation has waged war on Israel. Instead, a new race has begun, one which has witnessed them establishing diplomatic ties with Israel and all for the benefit of Israel. Every recognition of Israel has expedited the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. After Egypt befriended Israel in 1979, Palestine lost its biggest military ally. Not long after, Palestine lost Jordan when Amman recognised Israel in 1994. This was the beginning of the de-Arabisation of Palestine.

Depriving Palestinians of the support of Arabs and driving a wedge between wealthy Gulf nations and Palestine has been the core of Israel’s diplomatic ambitions, aims they achieved during the signing of the Abraham Accord in 2020.

Signatories to the Abraham Accords failed to recall their ambassadors from Israel as it killed innocent Palestinians in Gaza, while there was no official condemnation of Israel following its killing of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders Ismail Haniyah and Hassan Nasrallah.

Continued US support and protection and Arab complicity and silence mean Israel is not likely to stop its aggression on Palestinians or those who support and fight for their rights.

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