Netanyahu Will Use His ‘Poison Machine’ To Cling To Power – OpEd

By Yossi Mekelberg

For a glossary of the characteristics of Benjamin Netanyahu, here is a list of nouns that few associate with the Israeli prime minister, not only across the world, but also in Israel: integrity, humility, honor, honesty, decency, morality, altruism — you get the picture. If anyone thought that his unmitigated failure to defend his people on Oct. 7 would bring to the fore an inner self that was more reflective, uncontentious and self-effacing, they could not have been more mistaken. On that day, for a brief moment, Netanyahu and his political allies were stunned by the colossal failure to provide their people with the most basic of public goods they were tasked with supplying — namely, protecting their lives. But when it became apparent that the public had lost trust in him and wanted him gone, he and his cronies reverted to their default mode of cranking up their “poison machine” to full power in order to deflect any blame for what has become the worst crisis in Israel’s history.

By any acceptable standard of conduct in public life, Netanyahu’s time as prime minister should have long ago been confined to the pages of history. First, a prime minister who is a defendant in three corruption cases of bribery, fraud and breach of trust should have at least stepped down for the duration of the trial, while fighting to prove his innocence like any other ordinary citizen. Instead, with the help of his close aides, he devised what became known as the “poison machine,” which in essence is a network of people and bots that disseminates a host of toxic, violent and inciting messages across social media against political rivals, their ideas and their activities. His targets are mainly on the left, but may include some of the right should this suit his political and personal interests. These messages are all laced with the most appalling terms and accusations, character assassinations spiced up with half-truths, to say nothing of sheer lies. One of the leading dubious characters in this destructive and shameless practice is none other than the prime minister’s son, Yair, who has become a frequent visitor to the courts in the course of being sued for defamation, and has already lost such cases on more than one occasion.

Anyone questioning Netanyahu’s suitability to run a country can expect to bear the brunt of vicious and often personal attacks and innuendo. On the balance of probability, at the last general election these underhand tactics enabled Netanyahu’s Likud party to legitimize the racist-xenophobic, religious-fundamentalist and belligerent parties of the far-right, which consequently did well and allowed him to form the most extreme right-wing government ever seen in Israel. This coalition harbors strong anti-democratic and anti-Arab sentiments aimed at destroying the democratic system at home, while putting an end to any chance of peace with the Palestinians based on the two-state solution. For Netanyahu this is a price worth paying in order to save his neck by ensuring that his corruption trial will never reach a conclusion, or at least one that is not to his liking.

Worse, Netanyahu also agreed to his coalition partners’ plan for an assault on the democratic system, and has already set this in motion, knowing full well that it will divide the country, as it has done most visibly. Months of mass protests have not changed his mind, as the political system became an instrument to serve the leader and not the country, while his poison machine has been turned against the leaders of these democratic protests.

Netanyahu did not stop there, and it must be said, while fully acknowledging the criminal responsibility of Hamas for the atrocities of its Oct. 7 attacks, that he contributed to the disaster through his failed strategy regarding the Palestinian issue which saw him become an enabler of the militant group while weakening any Palestinian partner for peace. Yet, instead of immediately taking personal responsibility, apologizing to the nation, resigning his post and disappearing into the sunset in the immediate aftermath of the killing and hostage taking of so many of the very people he was elected to protect, in his typical manner, without compunction or conscience, he still clings obstinately to power and shows no sign of relinquishing it.

In the face of grieving families and those worried sick for loved ones taken hostage, he has spurned any responsibility, while embarking on a conflict whose objectives are unattainable, compromising the reputation of his country due to the way Israel is conducting that war by killing thousands upon thousands of innocent Palestinians. Meanwhile, he uses the poison machine to blame everyone but himself for the worst security fiasco in the country’s history, while threatening to turn Gaza into a military and political quagmire.

The chiefs of the Israeli Defense Forces and Shin Beit have also been on the receiving end of Netanyahu’s poison machine since Oct. 7, although they have already accepted responsibility, while continuing to lead their troops in the war. The machine is also being aimed at the leaders of the pro-democracy protests, although they were the ones who warned him that harming Israel’s democracy would compromise its military’s preparedness to face future threats. And, of course, there is also Netanyahu’s habit of blaming those behind the Oslo Accords, or the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza despite his support for it, while he counts on people’s short memories and his well-known dexterity in deception and deflection. Disgustingly, the poison machine has not spared the victims of the Hamas attack, as many have been characterized and vilified as leftist due to their social-economic profile, or are the families of the hostages whose only crime is demanding the government ensure the release of their loved ones, which seems less of a priority for this leadership with each passing day.

Let us not delude ourselves: At no point is there going to be a dignified Netanyahu resignation speech, before or after a ceasefire is declared, one that takes responsibility for the dire situation in which Israel has found itself under his premiership. As far as Israel’s prime minister is concerned, there is now only one option, and it is the Netanyahu option, which suggests that he might have an interest in prolonging the conflict for as long as possible in the belief — not always supported by history — that a country is unlikely to change its leader during a war. And when this war eventually does end, we will not be surprised to see him continue to spread unprecedented discord and division throughout the country, as he employs his poison machine in the most reckless manner. Because for him, Israel without Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister simply does not exist.

• Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg