Netanyahu increasingly isolated and derided as a “bastard” by his closest allies

Joe Biden has privately called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “bastard.” U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish and strongly pro-Israel, urged him to step down to prevent his country from becoming a “pariah.”

This is just America. At home, Netanyahu has yet to achieve any of the goals he has set for his devastating war in Gaza – which many see as incompatible – and which he appears intent on prolonging: the destruction of Hamas and the repatriation Of the 134 hostages still being held in Gaza – more than 30 of them are now feared dead.

A poll conducted over the weekend after Israel bombed the Iranian consulate building in Damascus, Syria on April 1 and before Iran launched drone and missile attacks on Israel found that 71% of Israelis want Netanyahu Nyahu stepped down immediately or after the incident. war.

While support for the war remains strong, polls show that more Israelis believe Netanyahu is acting in personal gain rather than the national interest.

Netanyahu could not seem more isolated. He is on trial on three corruption charges (which he denies) and is widely blamed for colossal failures in policy, intelligence and military preparations that led to Hamas’s mass murders and atrocities on October 7, for which he refuses to accept responsibility. assume no responsibility for failure. responsibility.

However, his workday showed he was undaunted. haaretz Journalist Uri Misgav, who zealously monitored his every move, claimed that “both before and after the massacre, he went to work late, mostly after having his hair and facial makeup done”.

His office issued a series of press releases that included images and text from his many speeches — here chairing a regular war cabinet, visiting an Air Force base, or there giving a pep talk to recruits and meeting a Foreign leaders – on Wednesday it was British Foreign Secretary David Cameron – and one day representatives from the US Congress.

That doesn’t include the political machinations needed to keep his coalition together. His 2023 calendar reportedly shows 26 private meetings with Ron Dermer, his closest political adviser and cabinet minister ally, and 26 private meetings with Defense Secretary Yoav Galante Gallant had only three private meetings, one of which was to fire him. (He was forced to reinstate Galante two weeks later.)

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So how does Israel’s longest-serving prime minister remain in power? Political answers are easier to find than psychological ones: Machiavelli’s techniques—from his legendary ability to buy time to the intimidating diatribes he allowed his supporters to spout on social media, incapacitating those who dared oppose him People are seen as “leftist and”. Traitor”. Now choose to fight Iran directly.

It distracts from Gaza, where Palestinians have suffered an unprecedented 33,000 deaths and now face famine. More importantly, it forced his allies, despite their frustration, to unite to defend Israel from an Iranian counterattack.

All this requires courage. Of the two predecessors who left office after the military crisis, Golda Meir was often plagued by anxieties, particularly about the intelligence failures that preceded the Yom Kippur War, while Menachem Begin After the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 he fell into a deep depression. It’s hard to imagine anything similar with Netanyahu.

There are at least two explanations for this.

One is that he is determined to stay in office and get out of jail—at least until there is some sign of an electorally exploitable “total victory” that has so far eluded him, or a more sympathetic Donald Trump was elected President of the United States—and so he turned a blind eye to the costs facing his country. As former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: “For Netanyahu, only one thing matters: himself and his career.”

Another might be a lot—indeed, an overdose—of self-confidence. Netanyahu is widely believed to have some kind of Churchill complex, although Haaretz, Proposed another role model – Howard Roark, the iconoclastic architect hero source The 1943 novel by Ayn Rand, the posthumous guru of the American right (including Trump), must have been read by Netanyahu in his youth.

“[Roark] He is the smartest, everyone else is trying to please each other and dare not do anything… His quality as a person is so high that he is allowed to do illegal or immoral things. ” Benn believes the fictional Roark may even be the reason why Netanyahu earned his first degree in architecture at MIT.

Aviv Bushinsky, Netanyahu’s spokesman during his first term as prime minister (1996-1999), remembered later meeting him in a Tel Aviv office where he could see A panoramic view of the city’s skyscrapers, he said proudly: “Before I took power, you wouldn’t see anything” like that. ”

Bushsky added: “I said to myself… is he kidding me? But he really believed it was just because of him.”

Of course, these interpretations are completely compatible. If coupled with Netanyahu’s determination to remain in power – despite all evidence to the contrary – only he knows what is good for Israel, his determination to remain in power becomes easier to sustain. It’s just this belief that makes this decision even more dangerous.

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