In what appears to be the last days of his 12-year rule, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not given up on politics.
The leader has long accused his opponents of plotting to overthrow the voters, and some need special protection.
Netanyahu said he had been subjected to a “deep” plot. He speaks nonsense when he talks about the country without its leadership.
“They are pulling out the good and magnifying the bad and the bad,” Netanyahu told Channel 20 television this week. “I fear for the future of the country.”
Such remarks have been going on for days as Netanyahu and his audience made a final effort to prevent the new government from taking office on Sunday. Since his election is over, it has also portrayed Netanyahu as a opposition leader.
For those who have seen Netanyahu dominate Israeli politics many years ago, his recent actions are well known.
They often describe threats large and small. He insulted his competitors and excelled in the use of division-and-conquest methods. He portrays his Jewish enemies as weak, anti-“left”, and Arab politicians as a fifth part of the rebel audience.
He always presents himself as the only person who can lead the country to its eternal security problems.
“Under his rule, politics is the best known,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan organization.
It is a method that has served Netanyahu well. He led the Likud right wing wing with an iron fist for more than 15 years, fighting several battles that earned him the nickname “King Bibi”.
He refused to be pressured by President Barack Obama to give permission to the Palestinians and publicly insulted him in 2015 by speaking at Congress against a nuclear deal led by the United States and Iran.
Although Netanyahu was unable to stop the trade, he received a major award from President Donald Trump, who he realized Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, brought out of nuclear cooperation and alliance international negotiations between Israel and four Arab states.
Netanyahu has waged a war that appears to be the most successful against Iran as it waits a long-running war against Israel and Palestine slowly, except for three short wars with Gaza regime Hamas.
What is happening to Palestinians today is “the same” as Netanyahu’s case, Plesner said. “There is no significant change in any area, the seizure or development of nations.”
But some of Netanyahu’s actions now appear to be returning to disrupt him. Biden’s new leadership in the United States has been a good thing for the Israeli leader, as Netanyahu’s close relationship with Trump has split major Democratic Party factions.
At home, Netanyahu’s magic is also gone – especially because of allegations of corruption. He has criticized a growing list of so-called enemies: journalists, courts, police, religious, human rights activists and veterans who were once allies.
In four consecutive elections since 2019, the incumbent Netanyahu has not been able to win a majority in parliament. Faced with the fifth consecutive nomination opportunity, eight parties managed to forge a coalition that was due to take effect on Sunday.
Israeli politics is often divided between rival, left-wing parties seeking alliance with Palestinians, and religious and national parties – led by Netanyahu – who oppose Palestinian independence. If any recent election had looked at the controversy, then the right-wing parties would have been stronger, more stable.
But the Palestinians did not find out – another legacy of Netanyahu, who has pushed the issue aside.
Instead, anyone who seems to be talking about Netanyahu’s personality and legal problems, which is very confusing. The forthcoming government includes three smaller parties led by former Netanyahu allies who have suffered a lot of hardships, including the prime minister, Naftali Bennett.
Bennett and his right-wing allies violated long-standing rhetoric against the Arab parties. Small Islamic Party, which Netanyahu also copied, should be the first to join the agreement.
Netanyahu and his followers in Likud began searching for more. Initially, Netanyahu tried to persuade the “dissidents” from their predecessors to prevent them from getting more MPs.
When that failed, he started using the same language as his colleague and Trump’s ally.
“We are witnesses to the worst electoral fraud in the country’s history,” Netanyahu said at a Likud conference this week. For a long time he has denied allegations of corruption such as “witch hunts” caused by “false stories,” and in an interview with TV he said he was being beaten by “serious” people.
His supporters have held threatening rallies outside the houses of councilors who have joined the new government. Some members of parliament said they and their families had received death threats, and one said they would soon be followed by a mysterious vehicle.
Netanyahu’s Orthodox friends, in the end, have made Bennett a threat to their religion, with someone telling him to remove the kippa, a skull worn by Jews.
The online promotion by Netanyahu’s followers has grown so much that several members of the incoming government have been given guards or relocation.
Some Israelis have compared the conflict that led to the unrest at the US Capitol in January, while others have blamed the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
In a public statement, Nadav Argaman, head of Shin Bet’s internal security service, recently warned of “a major uprising and aggression in the media and violence” in what he said could lead to violence.
Netanyahu condemned the riots, saying they too had been beaten.
Late Thursday, the Likanya party Netanyahu reported on Twitter in English that its fraudulent statements were not made in the run-up to the counting of votes and “have full confidence”. “There is no doubt about the dynamic change in peace,” it said.
Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Hebrew University, said he hoped the coming months would be relatively stable.
“We will see a hostile and aggressive leader, namely Netanyahu, determined that the alliance will change over time and that we will have more elections soon,” he said. he added.
“We don’t even remember how normal politics looks,” Talshir said.
