Netanyahu is not the villain in Hamas’s theatre of war
Sometimes it’s in the turn of phrase. On Wednesday, the BBC’s World Affairs Editor John Simpson – who has defended the corporation’s refusal to label Hamas “terrorists” – praised a certain Corbynite activist and children’s writer for his penetrating understanding of Middle Eastern geopolitics.
“The magnificent Michael Rosen defends the BBC’s coverage of Israel/Gaza by pointing out that no one accuses the Israeli newspaper Haaretz of anti-Semitism when it reports honestly and objectively about Netanyahu and his war,” he tweeted. “Thank you, Michael.”
His war. Netanyahu’s war. Really? What about Hamas butchering, raping and mutilating Israelis before dragging 251 innocents into Gaza last year? If it was your daughter sitting in her own filth in a dungeon underground, would you be making daisy chains and joining Amnesty?
Israeli society – which had suspended its infighting after the pogroms – is now once again in full argument mode over Benjamin Netanyahu, who is now blamed by the Left for the execution of the six captives last month, as if he had pulled the trigger himself. The West has lapped it up. Show me a subversive Israeli narrative and I’ll show you an eager press pack.
Portrayals of Israeli prime ministers often include post-Medieval iconography. Here is Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall with dead babies. Here we find the man with devil horns and tail; here holding a Star-of-David trident. Here is former leader Ariel Sharon biting the head off an infant. Here is little William of Norwich, crucified by rumour on Easter 1144; here the small Arab corpses. (As I write, the IDF has facilitated polio vaccinations for more than 560,000 children in Gaza.)
True, Netanyahu has become a toxic leader, presiding over a repellent and divisive governing coalition. But the world is hardly short of toxic leaders, even in democracies like Israel. “We demand the right to have our own villains, exactly as other people have them,” wrote Ze’ev Jabotinsky, one of the fathers of the Jewish republic, in 1911. So much for that.
These days, “Netanyahu” has joined “Zionists” as a cipher for “the Jews”, an argot of anti-Semitism that allows a bigot to express hatred without censure. He is hardly a blameless figure. But is he really that warmongering demon of Jerusalem, with a disturbing appetite for young blood? Is he not merely a flawed politician fighting against a deadly terrorist group?
Funny how it all makes sense when you read Netanyahu as a proxy for the Jews. Who is the greater criminal, him or Hamas? The hesitation belies the brainwashing. As the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy argues in his upcoming book Israel Alone: “Can one imagine a western neighbour of Giorgia Meloni’s Italy using as a pretext her Mussolini-like leanings… [for] launching a murderous assault?”
I’m not accusing Simpson of being a Jew-hater. His tweet – which dropped on the anniversary of the 9/11 atrocity, met with dancing in the streets of Ramallah at the time – was simply a reflection of misunderstandings held by those obsessed with Israel’s current war of self-defence.
Hamas are not labelled as terrorists. And so we find Netanyahu and Hamas fingered in unison by the International Criminal Court, and the erasure of jihadi agency in the conflict, with the blame for a stalled deal placed purely on the shoulders of the Israeli leader.In return for hostages, Hamas wants the IDF to withdraw from the smuggling territory it requires to rearm.
Even if Netanyahu complied, there would likely be further deceptions, further executed hostages. But one mustn’t think of Hamas without thinking of “the context”.
We are facing, as Henri put it, “the beast unchained and with its muzzle bared, hungry for Jewish flesh – which is to say, human flesh.” Feed it and it will come for your children.
