Benjamin Netanyahu, the 74-year old Israeli Prime Minister is ambitious, strategic and a goal-getter. Yet in his legendary lies his weakness – the insatiable appetite to continuously win. As the Israeli society grapples with the reality of the October 7 attack launched by the Palestinian group – Hamas, with accusing fingers being pointed at the direction of the Prime Minister, Platforms Africa’s Foreign Affairs editor, Nurudeen Oyewole, takes a look at five political blunders turning the once-deified Netanyahu to object of infamy and a potential goner from the seat of power.
Decked in his navy blue suit, with a white shirt and blue tie to match, Benjamin Netanyahu, the ever-theatrics Israeli Prime Minister, on September 23, 2023 mounted the rostrum at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, to put up yet another controversial act. Tapping into his usual dramatic gesticulations, Netanyahu presented what he dubbed: ‘the New Middle East’ map – a map that apportioned all the land of Palestine to what he and his ilk fantasised as the ‘Greater Land of Israel’. That he did, unchallenged.
Indeed, Netanyahu’s presentation at the UN General Assembly was a culmination of weeks of diplomatic blitz he was riding high on. At different interviews and statements credited to the Israeli Prime Minister before his UN showmanship, he has never failed to rub it in: “the prospect of a Palestinian state is already in the mortuary, there is no point waking its ghost.” Netanyahu’s confidence is understandable. He is on the cusp of reaching a landmark diplomatic success – a normalisation or a formal recognition of the state of Israel by the most influential country in the Arab and Islamic world – Saudi Arabia.
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And what’s the catch? The diplomatic victory Bibi (as Netanyahu is fondly known) is aiming to gain from Saudi normalisation effort is practically coming with no cost or without that ‘vexatious condition’ – the establishment and recognition of the state of Palestine beside the State of Israel. Of course the Saudi officials while granting interviews and making statements before the cameras, had always mentioned the condition for normalisation with Israel to include the establishment of the State of Palestine with the capital in East Jerusalem.
However, not a few of those who gleaned snippets of what was transpiring behind the curtains have scooped that the Saudis were actually less serious in getting Israel to honour the quest for the establishment of a Palestinian State.
And if anyone was in doubt, the statement credited to the Saudi de facto ruler, Prince Muhammed Bin Salman (MBS) in an interview with the US broadcaster – Fox News, where he was expected to reiterate the establishment of a Palestinian state as a pre-condition for Israeli normalisation but was rather hammering on how “Palestinians issue is important to Saudi Arabia” – an ambiguous statement with no definite clarification, was all that Netanyahu needed to underscore how successful his strategy has been paying off.
For a man who had similarly pulled such masterstroke three years ago when the famous Abraham Accord with United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco with the support of former US President, Donald Trump, was signed; by finally coveting Saudi Arabia, the biggest household name in Arab and Islamic world, Bibi would be itching closer to seal his pursuit of historical fame – the grandest political figure in Israeli modern time.
Already, he has his name etched as the longest serving Prime Minister in Israeli history (having being a Prime Minister for cumulative 16 years) and unlike his opponents, he has succeeded in building a reputation among the electorate as “the chief protector of the state of Israel” as he usually couched most of his campaign promises around how to protect Israel against onslaughts of “irritating Palestinians terrorists” as well as Israeli most vicious adversary – the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Ironically, security – the singular campaign strategy Bibi has used to build a wall of invincibility around his political trajectory has now turned out to be his greatest undoing, one that is fast eviscerating all that he has achieved over the years, right in his eyes. Bibi’s security strategy revolves around what is known as ‘policy of containment with divide and rule’, one that throws money to the Palestinian Authority controlling the West Bank and Hamas leading the Gaza Strip but with both authorities never agreeing on any policy-plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state. While this has so far worked, analysts will readily agree that it was more of postponing the evil day. That evil day finally manifested on October 7, 2023, when the military arm of Hamas, otherwise known as Al-Qassam Brigades what is now being regarded as the worst carnage on Israeli society since the Yom Kippur war, fifty years ago.
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Yet things have never been this bad for the famed ‘protector of the state of Israel’. At the heart of this darkest hour, are the five under-listed political blunders Netanyahu could have avoided:
Leading the most right-wing government
Having emerged as the longest serving Prime Minister in the state of Israel’s history (1996 – 1999; 2009 – 2021 and 2022 till now), Bibi has enough reasons to take a back seat and watch how other politicians, especially the younger ones can also play their part. However, the veteran politician is not the one the type that knows how to say goodbye. For instance in 2021, even with a corruption case hanging on his neck, Netanyahu practically threw in everything at his disposal to extend his reign by trying hard to block the chances of loose coalition of opposition who were on the brink of forming an alliance that will torpedo his 12-straight years in power.
In his hours of desperation, Netanyahu practically made phone calls to every lawmaker in the Knesset (legislative assembly) trying to dissuade them from joining the opposition alliance to form government, including those with strong ideological differences from his party, promising them every impossibility that existed in this world. Regrettably, that effort failed. And for 16 months, he could only watch from the sideline as an opposition leader.
Nonetheless, Bibi did everything within his power to peel away members of the coalition and eventually got that government crash-landed. And in what could be described as a returned fight, Netanyahu’s Likud party participated in the 2022 election, won most seats as projected but short of outright majority in the Knesset. Not wanting to take any further chances like in 2021, he went on to strike alliance with the most fanatical right-wing ideologues.
Characters such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, who will later become his minister of Israeli security and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, were thrown into political limelight while Bibi continues to implement their policies, some of which have divided the Israeli society like never before.
To be concluded next week
