Panic in Tel Aviv: Is Netanyahu Losing It? (Part 2)
- Panic in Tel Aviv: Is Netanyahu Losing It? (Part 2)
by ABDEL BARI ATWAN, https://www.darkmoon.me/
Part 2 : The Ticking Time Bomb
(Panic in Tel Aviv: Is Netanyahu losing it? (Part 1))
To understand the state of panic currently afflicting the ruling elite in Israel, which has gone to the extent of openly threatening to bomb the presidential palace in Damascus and Iranian military formations in Syria, one need only refer to recent remarks made by Robert Ford, the last US ambassador to Syria.
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Ford is currently a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington. He has long been one of the most prominent proponents and supporters of the ‘Syrian revolution’ and the Western/Gulf-led effort to overthrow the regime in Damascus by force.
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But in an interview with the English-language UAE daily The National this week, he conceded that President Bashar al-Assad has defeated the armed campaign that was launched seven years ago to topple him and his regime.
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‘The war is winding down little by little’, he stated. ‘Assad has won and he will stay. He may never be held accountable, and Iran will be in Syria to stay. This is the new reality that we have to accept, and there isn’t much we can do about it.’
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Ford was resigned to the idea that the regime would eventually reassert its full control over the entire country: ‘The Syrian government cannot and will not accept local administrations or decentralisation, despite the fact that the Russians keep talking about it’, he said. ‘It might take two or four years, but they can’t accept other governments – local or foreign – to control these places.’
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And he warned that ‘the shift in the dynamic in Syria has made the situation worse for Israel’. He explained: ‘The Israelis used to fly with no worry over Syria, but now their whole calculus has changed.’
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Perhaps this explains the extreme angst displayed by Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu when he travelled to Sochi on 23 August to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged him stand by Israel’s side amid the strategic changes in Syria that have advanced the rise of Iran as a regional power.
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According to various Israel press reports that were confirmed by Russian media, Putin found his Israeli guest to be in a state of agitation bordering on hysteria as he explained the apocalyptic consequences of Iran’s regional ascendancy.
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But the Russian president kept calm and replied that Iran was Russia’s strategic ally in the Middle East, the main counterweight to the Arab-Islamic variant of Nato which the US is trying to establish in the region, and that Moscow has no intention of abandoning it for Israel’s sake – nor of taking lectures from Israel on how it should make its policies in the region.
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What is worrying is that the clearly threatening tone used by Netanyahu – both in Sochi and at his meeting with the UN chief – could be a prelude for Israel to launch a large-scale attack on Syria and/or Lebanon, on the pretext that it faces a security threat from Iran in both countries and is acting in self-defence.
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This is made more likely by the many corruption charges that are closing in on Netanyahu, which could lead to his indictment and prosecution and force him out of office and into jail. He may be tempted to start a war to divert attention from these investigations and unite the country in a common cause – just as the embattled former premier Ehud Olmert did when he attacked Lebanon in July 2006.
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LD : According to recent reports, six people close to Netanyahu have just been arrested as part of an investigation into alleged corruption over the so-called “purchase” of German submarines by Israel. These include Netanyahu’s former chief-of-staff, David Sharan, and a former navy commander. Sharan was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust.
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We learn today from another news report that “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dropping what remains of his statesmanlike persona in favor of an angry nationalism that’s popular with his base…. With each new complication Netanyahu seems to grow more bellicose…. According to one report, [even] Netanyahu’s wife Sara is headed toward an indictment for fraud regarding their household expenses.”
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According to a correspondent of mine, Netanyahu is being “cornered”. He is himself, so I am told, a puppet of people far more powerful than himself (e.g. American billionaire Sheldon Adelson with whom he is in frequent telephone contact). It is not unlikely that the Israeli Prime Minister is being threatened with a criminal conviction, with years behind bars, unless he does what he is told. Told to do what? One can only speculate.
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Perhaps Netanyahu is being pressurized into bombing Syria and starting a war against Iran which will inevitably suck in the United States. Bellicosity, in other words, may be Netanyahu’s passport to survival. Without the US coming to Israel’s aid, Israel wouldn’t stand a chance against a resurgent Syria and a confident Iran fully backed by Vladimir Putin. Tel Aviv could easily be reduced to ashes if Netanyahu overplays his hand and gets too big for his boots. [LD]
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