Every report of Benjamin Netanyahu’s political death has proven premature, but that doesn’t keep a lot of people from hoping and plotting. From Martin Jay at strategic-culture.su:
Getting rid of Netanyahu and toppling his increasingly fragile coalition is an attractive strategy for Biden, Martin Jay writes.
Recent gestures by the international criminal court in the Hague, often called simply the ICC, are that it might begin war crime proceedings against Israel for the genocide it carries out each day, with the blessing of the West. So far, they are just statements but it is interesting that global public opinion, not from elites but from the masses right around the world, is putting pressure on the international court to step up to the mark. It’s interesting on a number of levels. Chiefly though, given that the court is a creation of America and a very effective tool to use against regimes in the Global South which it doesn’t like, sceptics can only speculate as to the rationale behind the move. A fair bet might be that a number of EU member states have leant on the Hague court to at least become vocal; another possibility is that Palestine itself has urged the court to uphold international law; and a third option is that Biden himself is using the court as a tool to impale Netanyahu. Getting rid of Netanyahu and toppling his increasingly fragile coalition, forcing new elections in a country that no one calls “the only democracy in the middle east” anymore is an attractive strategy for Biden who doesn’t want to go to the polls next year with no support whatsoever from American Jews who don’t support Netanyahu and, for that matter, losing the American Muslim vote.
Putting aside the comical if not predictable response from Netanyahu who hit back with accusations of “antisemitism”, many might argue the move by the ICC is a combination of all three scenarios. But it is hard to imagine the court doing anything without the blessing of the Biden administration and Netanyahu must be feeling increasingly isolated — almost entirely at home where polls show he has no support at all from his base — and more and more from the rest of the world. What we have seen in recent days is the limitation of the “Israel has the right to defend itself” mantra from Western countries’ elites who are growing increasingly uncomfortable with huge demonstrations in support of Palestine, with an increase in genuine antisemitism noticeable but not in such great numbers as US media is spinning.
Nothing is quite what is seems and dark forces are at work when we talk about Netanyahu’s future. He was never a friend of Biden, although he was the first world leader to welcome the US president to office, which shocked many Trump supporters, who, after all gave him and Israel so much during his one tumultuous term.
