At 73, Benyamin Netanyahu, once the golden boy of the
Israeli hard right, appears to have been stripped of his Midas touch. A sly
orator, a populist manipulator, and a rabble-rouser, he has lost his flair for
grandstanding.
اضافة اعلان
Last week at the UN General Assembly, speaking to a nearly
empty hall,
Netanyahu’s usual gaslighting while attempting to do his signature
smokes and mirrors show was a foundering event. He used everything at his
disposal in his repertoire of tricks, and yet he failed to impress. All that
was missing was for him to throw a tantrum. Maybe it will come once he goes
back to Israel and faces reality.
A different brand of Israeli and Arab politicians
His enamor for showing graphs and maps was pitiful. His New
Middle East offering had nothing new. The idea goes back to the era of the
Oslo Accords when a different brand of Israeli—and Arab—politicians contemplated
that vision: a time when Arabs and Israelis could live in peace and use their
vast human and natural resources to turn the region into a potent powerhouse.
But there was an essential precondition to that vision: an end to decades of
Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the emergence of an independent
Palestinian state. That prerequisite never happened.
At 73, Benyamin Netanyahu, once the golden boy of the Israeli hard right, appears to have been stripped of his Midas touch. A sly orator, a populist manipulator, and a rabble-rouser, he has lost his flair for grandstanding.
One main culprit for the derailment of Oslo and subsequent
attempts to resuscitate an ailing peace process was none other than
Netanyahu himself. Whether on the opposition or at the helm, the dodgy politician did his
best to wreck the peace process and later bury the premise of a two-state
solution in historical Palestine.
To empty the Oslo Accords of any substance
He used everything in his arsenal to empty the Oslo Accords
of any substance. The Palestinian Authority (PA) became a placebo self-rule
pill that the Palestinians were duped to swallow for years. Slowly, the goal of
negotiating final status issues, a preface to finally ending the occupation and
delivering on the Oslo promises, was stripped of any context.
He was always there to give the green light
Having changed the narrative,
Netanyahu then proceeded to
undermine the PA: unleashing waves of settlement buildings that strangled the
Palestinians and robbed them of their homes, lands, and natural resources. The
biggest land grab since the occupation of the West Bank took place after Oslo.
Netanyahu was always there to give the green light as he nurtured the Kahanists,
the ultra-religious and ultra-nationalists. Under his successive governments—he
became the longest-serving premier in
Israeli history—the Left fell on its
proverbial sword, and the Right lost its bearings as the Far Right hijacked its
platform.
His penultimate political sin was to bring those Far Right
fanatics out from the cold when he struck a deal to end an election stalemate
and win a majority in the Knesset. His toxic coalition unveiled an
ugly face of Israel; one that even its most loyal supporters in Washington, London, and
others could not tolerate.
He has divided Israel unprecedentedly since the country’s
bloody birth. His assault on Israel’s democratic institutions has little to do
with its incurable hold on the West Bank. He has triggered a civil war that
threatens to tear the country apart. Yet, he avoided the issue at the UN.
Facing criminal charges of graft,
Netanyahu’s legacy is at stake—and he
could go to prison. Thus, his unholy, and necessary, alliance with the maniacs
who want to make Israel a Daesh-like state. He is willing to risk chaos in
Israel to save his skin.
The Far Right’s conflicting agendas goes beyond
But the Far Right’s conflicting agendas go beyond the outer
limits of Netanyahu’s political avarice. Aside from ending Israel’s secular
nature through racist, misogynist, religiously extreme objectives, they also
want to end any hope for a peaceful co-existence with the Palestinians: The
alternative? Who knows? Mass transfer, genocide, ghettos—everything has
been normalized and is now on the table. This is what Smotrich, Ben Gvir, and
others are spewing out with no shame. But Netanyahu says he’s in control and
his enemies, even the conservative Israeli media don’t believe him.
At the UN he brandished a map that underlined a total denial of the existence of the Palestinians. But he offered no solution. The big question today in Netanyahu’s Israel is what to do with over 3.5 million Palestinians if Eretz Israel is to become a reality. His new Middle East premise is missing one giant component, and he is in denial.
While avoiding all this,
Netanyahu still believes he can
sell something to the world, when in fact his coffers are empty. His final act
at the UN was to claim he was delivering a new Middle East, aptly his last show
and legacy. The reality is that his government is so radioactive that even his
Abraham Accord partners are in disgust. Support for the accords has dipped,
according to various surveys.
At the UN he brandished a map that underlined a total denial
of the existence of the Palestinians. But he offered no solution. The big
question today in Netanyahu’s Israel is what to do with over 3.5 million
Palestinians if Eretz Israel is to become a reality. His new Middle East
premise is missing one giant component, and he is in denial.
At the UN,
Netanyahu avoided mentioning how Israel is
changing under his watch, and he skirted mentioning the peace process
altogether as if normalizing ties with the Arab world would make the
Palestinian issue disappear. He tried again to play the Iran card but was a few
steps behind in the latest geopolitical shifts. The region's countries now
agree that they must deal with Iran as a neighbor and possibly a partner.
Rash to celebrate
Netanyahu was rash to celebrate possible rapprochement with
Saudi Arabia—the big prize—ignoring Riyadh’s crystal clear and principled
position on what needs to be delivered before such a historical breakthrough is
ripe for the picking. In short,
Netanyahu got everything wrong at the UN; just
as it appears he is getting a lot wrong back home in Israel.
Osama Al Sharif is a journalist and political commentator
based in Amman.
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