mimarsan

Nothing could be worse for Netanyahu. Nothing could be worse for Netanyahu. A large part of the Israeli people wants to see him in jail, and without a majority in his coalition, he will no longer have the government to protect him. I’m talking about one of the most skilled and shrewd leaders in Israel’s history. Netanyahu managed to pull Israel out of isolation by building and consolidating alliances, yet at the same time a significant share of Israeli moderates blame him for the limbo in which Israel’s image now finds itself globally. And if Netanyahu was already an unpopular figure among American Democrats, now Republicans also blame him for the defeat. The new Israeli government will need not only to rebuild its image before the world, but also to reconstruct it within American politics and society, and this goes far beyond campaign financing. Netanyahu’s arrest will echo in Israel as the first step in a process of reconstruction, one that must be accompanied by deep self-criticism on several fronts and, almost certainly, by accountability and punishment. Trump and Netanyahu are paying the price not only for the failed war against Iran, but also for the disproportionate retaliation on Gaza that left tens of thousands dead. If the actions were Netanyahu’s, the bombs were Trump’s.