In October 2023 a query on the character of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is way past overdue. Not just in Washington, Europe, and Muslim capitals throughout the world but also at home in Israel there is a dawning fear – can Netanyahu pull off a triple political coup – elude several judicial prosecutions while disarming Israeli courts from ever reviewing his Knesset and Cabinet decisions/processes while achieving a Ben-Gurion Zion coup – annexation of all the West Bank with indigenous Palestinians reduced to a subservient state controlled by Israeli government dictates? Israels Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has made this intenetions known in Paris as his Zionist party works to restore Israel from its 2000 year old Roman dismemberment.
Likewise, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician who called for Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination will now be in charge of the national police force, allowing him to protect growing illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Is this the leadership team that Israel needs? Or is Israel and the Mideast drenched in too much grievance and venegeance intrigue and thus condemned to lurch through retribution and vengeance minefields of increasingly callous carnage?
The historical record in theMideast for the past 60+ years is littered with pogroms, massacres, and internecine warfare. The list is imposing for its treachery and accumulated death tolls:
| 1946 | Iran crisis of 1946[2][15][e] | 
|
2,000 |
| 1948– | Arab–Israeli conflict[f] | 
|
73,000–84,000 |
| 1948 | Alwaziri coup[2] | 
|
4,000–5,000 |
| 1948 | Al-Wathbah uprising | 
|
300–400 |
| 1952 | Egyptian revolution of 1952[2] |
|
1,000 |
| 1953 | 1953 Iranian coup d’état[2][15][27] |
|
300–800 |
| 1954–1960 | Jebel Akhdar War[15] | 
|
100–523 |
| 1955–1959 | Cyprus Emergency[28][29] | 
|
400–600 |
| 1956 | Suez Crisis | ||
| 1956–1960 | Yemeni–Adenese clan violence[2] | 
|
1,000 |
| 1958 | 1958 Lebanon Crisis[2][11][29] |
|
1,300–4,000 |
| 1958 | 1958 Iraqi Revolution[2] | 
|
100 |
| 1959 | 1959 Mosul uprising[2] | 
|
2,000–4,000 |
| 1962–1970 | North Yemen Civil War[30][31][g] | 
|
100,000–200,000 |
| 1962–1975 | Dhofar Rebellion[15] | 
|
10,000 |
| 1963 | 1963 Riots in Iran[15] |
|
100 |
| 1963 | February 1963 Ba’athist Iraqi coup[32] |
|
1,000 |
| 1963 | 8th of March Syrian Revolution[33] |
|
820 |
| 1963–1967 | Aden Emergency[34] | 
|
2,096 |
| 1963 | November 1963 Iraqi coup[32] |
|
250 |
| 1964 | 1964 Hama riot[35][36] |
|
70–100 |
| 1966 | 1966 neo-Ba’athist coup d’état in Syria[15] |
|
400 |
| 1966 | 1966 Arif Abd ar-Razzaq second coup[37] | 
|
80–100 |
| 1970–1971 | Black September[29] |
|
2,000–25,000 |
| 1972 | Yemenite War of 1972 |
|
100+ |
| 1974 | Turkish invasion of Cyprus[22][38] |
|
1,500–5,000 |
| 1974 | Shatt al-Arab clashes[39] | 
|
1,000 |
| 1975–1990 | Lebanese Civil War[40][h] |
|
150,000 |
| 1976–1980 | Political violence in Turkey (1976–1980)[41][42][43] | 
|
5,000–5,388 |
| 1978–1982 | NDF Rebellion |
|
100+ |
| 1978– | Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present)[44] |
|
30,000–100,000 |
| 1979 | Yemenite War of 1979 |
|
1,000+ |
| 1979 | Iranian Revolution[45][46] | 
|
3,164–60,000 |
| 1979–1980 | Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution [i] |
|
10,171 |
| 1979–1983 | Saudi Eastern Province unrest[47] | 
|
182–219 |
| 1979 | Grand Mosque seizure[48] |
|
307 |
| 1979–1982 | Islamist uprising in Syria | 
|
40,000+ |
| 1980 | 1980 Turkish coup d’état[49][50] |
|
127–550 |
| 1980 | 1980 Sadr uprising[51] |
|
1,000–30,000 |
| 1980–1988 | Iran–Iraq War[22][52][j] |
|
1,000,000–1,250,000 |
| 1986 | South Yemen Civil War[53] |
|
5,000–12,000 |
| 1986 | 1986 Egyptian Conscription Riot[54] | 
|
107 |
| 1986 | 1986 Damascus bombings[55] |
|
204 |
| 1987 | Iranian pilgrim riot (Mecca massacre)[56] |
|
402 |
| 1987–1988 | ANO Executions |
|
170 |
| 1989–1996 | KDPI insurgency (1989–1996) |
|
168–503 |
| 1990–1991 | Gulf War[40] |
|
40,000–57,000 |
| 1991 | 1991 Iraqi uprisings[51][57] | 
|
50,000–100,000 |
| 1994 | 1994 civil war in Yemen | 
|
7,000–10,000 |
| 1995– | Islamic Insurgency in Saudi Arabia |
|
300 |
| 1998 | Operation Desert Fox[28][29] (Iraqi no-fly zones) |
|
2,000 |
| 1999 | 1999 Shia uprising in Iraq[15][58] |
|
100–200 |
| 2003–2011 | Iraq War[59][60][61][62][63][64][k] |
|
109,032–650,726 See also: Casualties of the Iraq War |
| 2004 | Qamishli massacre (2004)[65][66] |
|
30–100 |
| 2004–2014 | Shia insurgency in Yemen[67][68][69] |
|
8,500–25,000 |
| 2004– | Iran–PJAK conflict[70] |
|
588–747 |
| 2006– | Fatah–Hamas conflict[71][72] |
|
600+ |
| 2006– | Iran–Israel proxy conflict |
|
≈2000 |
| 2007 | Nahr al-Bared fighting |
|
480 |
| 2008 | 2008 Lebanon conflict |
|
105 |
| 2009–2015 | South Yemen Insurgency[73] |
|
2,100+ |
| 2010–2015 | Yemeni al-Qaeda crackdown[74][75] |
|
3,000+ |
| 2011 | 2011 Bahraini uprising | 
|
100+ |
| 2011– | Shia insurgency in Bahrain |
|
22+ |
| 2011–2014 | Egyptian crisis (2011–14)[m] |
|
7,000+ |
| 2011– | Yemeni Crisis (2011–present) |
|
9,000+ |
| 2011– | Syrian Civil War[n] |
|
503,064–613,407 + |
| 2011–2017 | Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon |
|
≈800 |
| 2011– | Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict |
|
|
| 2013–2017 | War in Iraq (2013–2017)[n] |
|
155,500–165,500+ |
| 2015– | Yemeni Civil War |
|
377,000+ |
| 2016– | Western Iran clashes |
|
74–156 |
| 15-16 July 2016 | 2016 Turkish coup d’état attempt |
|
270–350 |
| 2017 | 2017 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict |
|
+305 |
| 2017– | Iraqi insurgency (2017–present) |
|
5,000+ |
The Wikipedia list above omits the sectarian conflicts in Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Chechnya, yet the turmoil in the past 50 years has been increasingly brutal with Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia as major players. However, despite the substantial Muslim majority throughout the region, there are complexions to the political alliances. The diferences in ethnic background [Arab,Israeli, Kurdissh, Iranian,Turkish] and Muslim religious affiliation [Sunni, Shia the two major sects but Sufi, Alawite, Druze being important minority sects] all these divergent complexions and their allegiances literally shape many current Mideastern conflicts in unexpected directions.
A good example of strange machinations is in the Brooking’s review – Iran’s revolution, 40 years on: Israel’s reverse periphery doctrine describing how the 1979 Iran Revolution turned relations topsy turvey between Iran and Israel:
“The revolution upended these relations dramatically. Not only were ties cut off, but Israel was relegated by Ayatollah Khomeini to the status of “Little Satan” For the new Iranian regime, Israel became a central focus of ideological and religious vitriol. The Islamic Republic became a central backer of any Arab resistance to Israel. Iran seemingly became more Palestinian than the Palestinians. It opposed all peace negotiations between Arabs and Israelis, including the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Oslo Accords of 1993.”
Of interest has been the Iranian and Israeli roles in the Syrian Civil War which has had more than 550,000 casualties. Iran and Russia supported the Assad Regime while Saudi Arabia and Qatar supported the Syrian Rebels while Turkey and Israel flipped between support for the Rebels and then the Assad government. Clearly, the Syrian conflict shows the labyrinthine antagonisms among Israel and the various Muslim Players in the Mid East. .And in ensuing negotiations between Arabs and Muslim sects, Benjamin Netanyahu has been a most nafarious player
Benjamin Netanyahu: Native-born Zionist
Known as Ben Nitai in his many stays in the US, Benjamin Netanyahu lived in Philadelphia until 1967 when he returned to join the Israeli Special Forces where he served in several missions and became a captain. This miltary career helped him to rise in 1990-1995 to prominence in Israeli political circles. During this period he earned 3 degrees at MIT and Harvard while joining the prestigious Boston Consulting Group. In Israel, Netanyahu gained influential positions as Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister during the crucial 1993-1995 signing of the Oslo Accords and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin along with the prospects of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Benjamin Netanyahu played a pivotal role as an astute naysayer for any accommodation with Palestinians.
During the negotiation of the Oslo Accords Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin was a key voice in favor of reaching a realistic accommodation with Palestine . All during the process, Likud party leader Netanyahu was a constant and vocal critic of the Accords while working behind the scenes to enhance Hamas vs the PLO in the West Bank. The aim was to show that the Palestinians were too divisive so they could not be trusted as a stable state neighbour.
Even more dangerous Netanyahu “ignored” the many demonstrations of hard rightists who openly called for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Within days on November 4, 1995, Yitzhak was shot dead by Yagil Amir who during his interrogation after the deed asked for “a schnapps to celebrate Rabin’s death.”.After Rabin’s assassination, Benjamin Netanyahu won the Premiership but backpedaled on any substantive negotiations on a Palestinean settlement as envisaged by Rabin and Shimon Pires. Rather he worked behind the scenes to allow Hamas to receive financial aid from Qatar. A constant aim was to promote Hamas over PLO as this delayed any meaningful Peace talks.
In 1999 Netanyahu lost the election to Ehud Barack and spent the next 5 years in private business and then as Finance Minister where his reforms to the economy brought a spurt of prosperity and raised demand for settlement in WestBank.
In his second term as Premier, Netanyahu concentrated in 2009 to 2014 on two roles – defusing American and European calls for progress in Peace negotiations while reforming taxes which allowed more control on Palestinians as well as aiding illegal Israeli settler investments within the West Bank. But the bulk of the term was spent securing military favors from the US including Iron Dome protection of Israeli airspace, and support for Jonathan Pollard [ the US engineer who sold military trade secrets to Israel. and pushing for continued multi-billion US military funding. But by 2019, Netanyahu was involved in so many nefarious affairs, that Israeli prosecutors were closing in on Natenyahu’s “misdemeanors”.
Bibi’s Misdemeanors
By 2019 Bibi’s risky behaviour became so dangerous that he lost the premiership. But within a year, Netanyahu was back in office by making a move to the hard right including open support for West Bank Annexation, increased power of review of the Israeli Judiciary, and dealing with the ever more serious demands of American, European, and UN agencies on controlling Israeli settlers. But Netanyahu and his Settler cabinet would not tolerate any slowdown in the move to full Zionism with Israel as master of all Judea.
- Corruption charges: Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 on charges of fraud, breach of trust, and bribery in three separate cases. The allegations involve him receiving gifts, engaging in discussions to promote common interests with media mogul Arnon Mozes, and having a reciprocal arrangement with Shaul Elovitch, the head of Israel’s largest telecommunications company. His trial began in 2020 and is still ongoing.
- Influence peddling: During his first term in office in the 1990s, Netanyahu was suspected of appointing a crony as attorney general in exchange for political support from the ultra-religious Shas party.
- Misuse of funds: In 2016, a state expense report revealed that Netanyahu spent over $600,000 of public funds on a six-day trip to New York, including $1,600 on a personal hairdresser. His wife, Sara, was also suspected of using taxpayers’ money to pay for her late father’s care while he was living at the official Jerusalem residence.
- Erosion of democracy: Critics argue that Netanyahu’s leadership has eroded Israel’s democracy, as he has aligned himself with right-wing populist leaders around the world and has been involved in efforts to weaken the country’s judiciary.
- The stalled peace process with Palestinians: Netanyahu has not made any progress in the peace process with the Palestinians, focusing on maintaining the current state of affairs, which has worsened over time. Critics argue that he has done little to reshape the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has instead entangled Israel and the West Bank further in divisive conflicts..
- Partisan politics in the US: Netanyahu’s handling of the Palestinian issue and his closeness to former President Donald Trump have contributed to the erosion of longstanding bipartisan support for Israel in the US.
Given the litany of domestic and broader international missteps, one wonders whether Joe Biden has made a bad bet on Iran’s Small Satan. Will Netanyahu’s Zionist aspiration for the return of all Judea to Israeli control spark a broader international conflict? Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, and Jordan are all faced with perilous decisions. By giving Israel double military aid, by supporting unqualified self defense including for recovering Israeli hostages, has Joe Bidnen sanctioned wiping out Hamas and in the process pulverizing Gaza making it uninhabitable and thrusting a million Palestinian refugee problem on Egypt and Jordan? By saying “Don’t” has Joe Biden really prevented very bad bets by Netanyahu, Hezbollah, Iran, Egypt and other “players”. Biden need only take a look at what grievances, vengeance, and retribution have done in the US Congress for how things can go “unprecedentedly wrong ” in climactic moments.