Bibi Netanyahu and Fate of Israel

Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is the longest serving prime minister in the history of the state of Israel (in office 18 June 1996- 6 July 1999; 31 March 2009 – 13 June 2021; 29 December 2022 until the present). He has stayed in office longer than Israel’s founding father and first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion (from 1948-1954 and 1955-1963) did. And just like Ben Gurion, Netanyahu’s influence on the character of Israel – its policies and priorities and even its morality – has been profound and will continue to shape the nation in the years to come.

It seems as if everything has already been said and written about Netanyahu, in Israel as well as internationally, and still not every aspect of his career and personality is known or fully understood. He is also a man of contradictions. A son of a well-known scholar of history who was brought up in one of the most luxurious neighbourhoods of Jerusalem and studied in the best universities in the United States, who became the champion of the underprivileged and those who feel oppressed. An Ashkenazi (Jews whose ancestors lived in Central or Eastern Europe before settling in Israel) whose most ardent supporters are to be found in the Mizrahi community (Jews with Arab ancestry). A secular Jew who leads the most religious, fundamentalist government that Israel ever had. A Prime Minister who during the first part of his career became known as a cautious and risk-averse leader who went to utmost lengths to avoid military force, who led Israel into the most brutal – and longest, with currently no end in sight – war in Israel’s history. An educated, impressive man who surrounds himself with clownish or boorish politicians and advisors, clearly his inferiors, Netanyahu is a man of contradictions. An Israeli Prime Minister who spent many years of his adult life in the United States and even considered to settle there is today the hero of Israeli rightwing nationalists who normally would consider every Israeli who even thinks of emigrating a traitor. And finally, a politician who admires the American democratic system and does everything possible to destroy the Israeli democracy.

The beginning was quite promising, military service at the most prestigious Israeli secret unit, a brother who was killed in the mythological Entebbe operation 1976 (when Israeli paratroopers rescued passengers of a hi-jacked plane that had been diverted to Uganda); deputy Foreign Minister and an appreciated Minister of Finance – even according to his critics. Not even his first stint as a Prime Minister offered any clues of what was to come.

Twenty-eight years after his first term in office, Netanyahu is today the most hated and despised and the most revered and beloved public figure in Israel. In Israel 2024 there is no deeper divide than that between Netanyahu’s admirers and his detractors. The former will blindly and automatically support anything he does, the latter will blindly and automatically criticize his every action. Typical of populist politicians, it is impossible to find any common language between his political base and the opposition when it comes to the subject of “Bibi”.

The Netanyahu of 2024 also became the prime minister of a pariah state, in the eyes of most of the world, with arrest warrants issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC). At the same time, he faces very serious charges in a long-lasting corruption trial in his own country. He has been leading the criminal war in Gaza and the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon which has massacred tens of thousands of people in Gaza and Lebanon but also resulted in thousands of killed and injured among the Israelis, soldiers and civilians. As the country’s Prime Minister on October 7, 2023, he bears ultimate responsibility for the biggest catastrophe that has befallen the Jewish state since its founding, and still polls show that he is nevertheless the most popular politician in Israel. It is hard to explain. Almost impossible.

The turning point in his career in my view was his trial. Netanyahu felt that he was being pushed to the wall, with or without good reason. His supporters felt so too. The trial changed Netanyahu, and he started to lose his way. Netanyahu of 2024 was taken hostage by the most racist Neo-Nazi partners in his government. Netanyahu of 2024 is mainly motivated by finding ways to save himself from having to end his political career and to extract himself from the trial. The road from there, to him becoming responsible for the worst crimes of war and the longest war in Israel’s history, was short. It is not that ideology doesn’t play a role anymore for Netanyahu – it does, and it is a very nationalistic and militaristic ideology, according to which Israel can only rely on its military force, forever live on its sword, and not believe in any kind of diplomacy as a tool to achieve national strategic goals, not perceiving Palestinians as equal human beings. But more than ideology, he is motivated by concerns for his own personal and political future. Netanyahu’s vision for Israel is first an Israel with Netanyahu at the helm, as the eternal leader, like many megalomanic politicians in history. He and those in his circle cannot imagine Israel without him. His vision for the future also includes more occupation, and ethnic cleansing, more destruction and mass killings, and even more annexations.

The combination of such an ideology with a personality like Netanyahu’s would be dangerous for any country, for Israel it is catastrophic. A state without clear borders, without a well-established democracy, with two peoples living side by side under the same rule, between the river and the sea. A state that never decided what it wants to be, religious or secular, democratic or Jewish, western or oriental, capitalist or socialist. The only state in the world which still has a question mark over its existence: will Israel exist in fifty years? Is a very common question, which is not being asked about any other state in the world. And in the context of such vulnerability, Netanyahu has become a threat to Israel’s future. Pariah state from the outside and torn and divided on the inside, with growing cracks in its democratic DNA. Israel after Netanyahu is undoubtedly a different Israel than before Netanyahu.

And still, this does not mean that it is fair to put the blame for all the errors and crimes that Israel has committed on one man’s shoulders. The occupation and the apartheid started much before Netanyahu and will unfortunately go on, long after he leaves. Netanyahu’s plan to remove the Palestinian question from the global agenda was successful for a while, and the Palestinian people, oppressed and without any rights, started to fade from the world’s consciousness. October 7, while vile and atrocious, brought them back into the spotlight. But the hope that Israel will become a beacon of justice and equality, peaceful and democratic, after Netanyahu steps down is a dangerous illusion. In the current Israeli political landscape, the only alternative to Netanyahu are other Netanyahus. Less corrupt, less megalomanic, less paranoic, more democratic, more liberal, more “normal”, but when it comes to Israel’s core issues, like continuing the war, going for the two-state solution, continuing the occupation and the apartheid forever, the differences are much smaller than the world and some Israelis tend to believe. It is a comforting thought, if only we get rid of Netanyahu all the problems will be solved. But there is no bigger deception than this.

Netanyahu’s present big hope is now called Donald Trump, with whom he shares many traits and characteristics, and some differences. Trump and Netanyahu are brothers in arms. Both will fight any minorities, both see democracy as a burden, both face criminal charges, both are beloved and hated in an unprecedent way in their own countries. Both want to destroy the system. The real challenge for the coming months for Netanyahu is external, domestically he can continue to govern almost in an uninterrupted way, until the next election in about two years’ time. But the new American administration will decide in many ways, not only the future of the United States but also the future of Benjamin Netanyahu and the state of Israel. If the traditional American policy of arming, financing and supporting Israel in an unconditional way, then Netanyahu and his cohorts will change Israel in an irreversible way, and it will turn into a mixture of Afghanistan, Iran and Sparta. If Trump will be faithful to his promises, namely, to end wars and not start new ones, also when it comes to Israel, then Netanyahu might face a problem. Trump much more than Biden might be the first American president who would punish Israel. He might also be the greatest friend of Israel’s apartheid.

In other words, the coming months are decisive. They might take Netanyahu to new peaks in his career, or they might bring an end to his career. They might save Israel from Netanyahu, from the settlers and the racists, or they might let them win, and Israel lose.