Is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a Middle Eastern clone of former US President Donald Trump? Is Israel’s emerging “government of change” the equivalent of President Joe Biden’s administration seeking to heal divisions and the country’s democratic institutions, as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote June 3? It is hard to ignore the similarity between the warning by the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Mark Milley in the waning days of the Trump administration — “We do not take an oath to an individual. … We take an oath to the Constitution.” — and last week’s leaked warnings attributed to an unnamed senior Israeli military source — “We will not allow anyone to set the Middle East on fire.”
No one in Israel was under any illusion that “anyone” was a reference to Netanyahu. As Al-Monitor reported June 4, the comments were made public following Netanyahu’s threats to block Iran’s nuclear program with or without US approval, and renewed attempts by right-wing activists to stir up unrest in Jerusalem by holding the Flag Parade in the Old City of Jerusalem June 10.
Knesset member David Bitan, a Likud party strongman and former close associate of Netanyahu, said in a June 7 television interview, “The heads of the defense agencies no longer heed Netanyahu; for them he’s already a has-been.” Bitan vented a feeling many Israelis share that Netanyahu is “losing it," veering out of control as he tries desperately to hold on to power.
Netanyahu was silent last week when reports emerged of the planned nationalist Flag Parade through the most volatile sections of the city as a reprise of the May 10 Jerusalem Day march that was scuttled by Hamas rockets. In the past, he would have been quick to veto such a flagrant nationalist provocation that risks the fragile calm in the mixed city. These days, some people are even suggesting that Netanyahu is cheering and encouraging the event behind the scenes. Last month’s Flag Parade that prompted Hamas to fire rockets at Jerusalem resulted in an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip and set off rioting in mixed Arab-Jewish towns — suspending negotiations on a “government of change” and almost scuttling its formation. Is Netanyahu planning a rerun of these events?
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