Haaretz is left-of-centre, but far from the only Israeli paper hashing out how to get rid of Netanyahu. This summary presents the problem for the West as one that can be solved by treating him like Putin, for reasons described below. The one thing the columnist missed is that Harris has *already* been given diplomatic roles to signal US keenness to work with someone else.
But locals have to throw off their far-right nightmare first. And soon.
@MLClark The problem can only be solved by Israeli electors. Israel is becoming the sort of country it once despised.
I'm guessing you didn't read the piece before concurring with the last part I mentioned; the point made here is that many locals still think of Netanyahu as someone with legitimacy on the world stage, even if they despise him. Without directly interfering in another country's elections, outside leaders can go a long way to disabusing locals of that notion by refusing to treat him with the same level of legitimacy.
(Colombia, Brazil, & Mexico are doing similar with Maduro right now.)
@MLClark I agree with the premise of the article, but ultimately it doesn't matter what I think. The electorate in Israel has to wise up.
Netanyahu's visit to Donald Trump should have been a powerful indication of his pathology, but a lot of Israelis probably saw that simply as smart statecraft.
I would like to see Netanyahu treated as a pariah by more countries, but I suspect that Israel engages in nuclear blackmail these days.
@gshevlin is speaking more to rhetoric than reality. Back in May, when the US withheld arms, there was a grim vein of commentary among Israeli far-right pundits, defying international criticism by arguing that if the US wouldn't give Israel the tools to be more targeted in its approach, the country should use whatever tools it has, irrespective of the cost.
At the same time, in the US, some GOP were invoking historical examples where nukes were used.
It's dangerous sabre-rattling.
And even the countries that did use it didn't learn from it! Kissinger gained early fame for writing about situational use cases for more nuclear deployments mere years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was even an advocate for their use in the Korean War - so there's a dangerous Western myth that we were all truly humbled by the terribleness of our invention after WWII. Warmongers in Kissinger's school of realpolitik always had an itchy trigger finger for nuclear disaster.
Israel is tacitly another nuclear power, even though (along with not agreeing to all four Geneva Conventions, and for this reason refusing to be party to the ICC) it is also not party to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and does not accept some key IAEA safety checks for local relevant production.
This status quo allows Israel to hold in reserve a disastrous nuclear option, which Westerners keep in mind when engaging in diplomacy with its wartime leaders.
@hallmarc @MLClark
The implicit threat that if countries do not support and assist Israel, then Israel will have no choice but to use tactical nuclear weapons against neighboring countries if they threaten its existence.
"Nice Middle East you got here. Be shame if something bad was to happen to it..."