Can Netanyahu turn Israel into a pariah state?

CairoUntil a few years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had mastered the art of extracting domestic benefits from his prodigious talent in foreign policy. Netanyahu, who has served as Prime Minister of Israel since 1998, has been a premier For 18 of the past 29 years, he met as an equal regularly with leaders such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi, and Xi Jinping. He was the only Israeli leader capable of moving so nimbly outside the country. The ultimate statesman.

For a regional power like Israel, which has been the target of a global boycott by the occupation of PalestineNetanyahu's international prowess was key because he projected precisely the opposite. Before the war on Gaza, he had managed to bury the Palestinian issue not only without consequences, but with greater success: direct access to Washington, the European Union as a major trading partner, and diplomatic normalization with Arab countries.

The ferocious military offensive in Gaza, the management of the most far-right government in Israel's history, and the prioritization of political survival, however, are rapidly degrading the status he had forged over so many years. And with it, for the moment, he is dragging the rest of the country down. Although Israel continues to enjoy the support of capitals like Washington and Brussels, Netanyahu's influence has declined markedly in the United States, the Middle East, and Europe.

One of the most obvious examples of this decline took place last week, when Trump traveled to the Middle East on his first foreign tour of his second term and left Israel out of the itinerary, which he had included in the first tour of his first administration. Furthermore, before and during the trip, the US president announced an agreement with the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the end of sanctions in Syria, and an understanding with Hamas for the release of an Israeli-American soldier in Gaza. He received a reality check from Trump when he was summoned for an emergency visit to the White House, which the Israeli prime minister internally sold as the latest demonstration of rapport between the two leaders. Netanyahu.

Washington's new allies in the region

On his tour of the Persian Gulf, Trump also took important steps forward in military cooperation with Saudi Arabia., and it is believed they discussed civil nuclear cooperation. Washington had always linked these agreements to establishing ties with Tel Aviv, which no longer seems essential, undermining Israel's influence and removing the great incentive for Arab countries to forge relations with them. The path to the White House no longer runs through Jerusalem.

This week it was Europe's turn. On Monday, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada declared Israel's military operations in Gaza "totally disproportionate," called "the level of human suffering" in the Strip intolerable, and considered "totally insufficient" amount of aid that Tel Aviv allows entry. London, Paris, and Ottawa also warned that if Tel Aviv does not make a radical change, they will take "new concrete measures in response."

Just one day later, the European Commission, at the request of 17 EU member states, agreed review the association agreement between Israel and the Twenty-Seven to determine whether Israel has violated its obligations to respect human rights and democratic principles. Cancellation of the agreement is still considered unlikely because it requires a consensus. Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain issued a statement criticizing the new model for distributing humanitarian aid devised by Israel in Gaza. The signatories, mostly Westerners, also affirmed that "the Palestinian territory must not be reduced or subject to any demographic change" in the coming weeks. In mid-June, France and Saudi Arabia are scheduled to convene a conference in New York, at which Paris, and perhaps other capitals, is expected to announce their recognition of a Palestinian state.