In an infrequent reaction, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized and issued a condemnation "with all his might." A few hours earlier, his Foreign Minister had done so, admitting that the act had been "serious and shameful." And both have assured that "harsh" and "strict" disciplinary measures will be taken against the perpetrator. What big thing happened? Well, the photo of an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon hitting the head of a crucified Jesus Christ with a hammer, lying upside down after being taken down from the cross, an image that has caused the usual tearing of clothes on social media.

The controversy has been so strong that Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced to apologize publicly. It all began over the weekend, when a photograph showing an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon hitting the head of a crucifix with a hammer, lying upside down after being taken down from the cross, caused a major controversy on social media. In an unusual move, this Monday the Prime Minister of Israel condemned the acts "with all his might" and announced an investigation into the incident, as well as "harsh disciplinary action" against the soldier.

A few days ago, it was done by letter, also signed by Ireland and Slovenia, and next Tuesday the Spanish government will formally request that the European Union break its association agreement with Israel. This was announced by the president of the executive, Pedro Sánchez, from Andalusia, where he participated in an electoral event with the socialist candidate, María Jesús Montero. According to Sánchez, Benjamin Netanyahu's government cannot continue to be a preferred partner of the EU because it "is violating international law" and, therefore, "the principles and values of the EU". It will be at the meeting of Foreign Affairs ministers where the Spanish government's request will be formalized.

The corruption trial against Benjamin Netanyahu has been postponed again after the Jerusalem District Court canceled the sessions scheduled for this week, following a new request from the prime minister's defense. The argument: "Classified security and diplomatic reasons" linked to the regional situation. According to the document filed with the court, Netanyahu will not be able to testify "for at least the next two weeks." The decision maintains the process, which had already been frozen for more than a month due to the military escalation with Iran, formally active but repeatedly interrupted.The case, which represents the first time an Israeli head of government is prosecuted while in office, is in the full phase of testimonies of the well-known cases 1000, 2000, and 4000. Case 1000 investigates the alleged receipt of 260,000 euros in gifts from businessmen such as Arnon Milchan and James Packer. Case 2000 analyzes an alleged negotiation with the editor of the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, Arnon Mozes, to obtain favorable coverage in exchange for limiting the influence of the rival newspaper, Israel Hayom. Case 4000, the most serious, focuses on alleged regulatory favors to businessman Shaul Elovitch in exchange for positive coverage on the Walla! portal, and includes the accusation of bribery.What was to be resumed these days was not unimportant sessions, but the prosecution's cross-examination, a key moment in which the narrative built by Netanyahu is tested since the beginning of the case in 2020. Netanyahu has denied all accusations and has called the case a "witch hunt" and a conspiracy by the "deep state". He even asked for a pardon in November to the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, arguing that the judicial proceedings hinder his ability to govern and would benefit the unity of the country. The pardon remains pending resolution.In this context, the war with Iran has been interpreted by various analysts as a possible smokescreen for the trial. “I am sure that this is one of the main reasons for the timing of the offensive against Iran, not only because of the trial, but also because he is still partly held responsible for the events of October 7, 2023”, the Israeli historian and political scientist, Ilan Pappé, tells ARA.Along the same lines, the Arab Center Washington points out that the prolongation of the conflict serves Netanyahu for a double objective: to maintain internal political control in an uncertain electoral context and, at the same time, to divert public attention and delay his judicial processes. In fact, shortly after the start of the offensive against Iran on February 28, Netanyahu himself called his trial an "absurd circus" and asked for it to be suspended to focus on the war.According to a source in the prime minister's coalition cited by the newspaper The Times of Israel, the leader was confident that a “victory narrative over Iran” would boost his re-election chances and shift attention from October 7th. He considered that a regime change in the Persian country and a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia would be enough to reinforce this scenario.Hit popularity and political tensions

Netanyahu's popularity was severely affected after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. Several sectors of Israeli society accuse him of avoiding responsibility for a serious security lapse, while he rejects any blame and insists on military successes against the armed group. Furthermore, public trust has also been eroded by his insistence on pushing for a government-controlled investigation instead of an independent commission.Meanwhile, the government faces growing internal tensions over the reform of the military recruitment law, especially regarding the exemptions demanded by ultra-Orthodox parties. Military service in Israel is mandatory, but Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox allies are pressuring to maintain these privileges. A law of this kind, currently stalled due to the regional situation, would be highly unpopular among the majority of the population.The ceasefire in Iran weakens Netanyahu

In the early stages of the conflict with Iran, the war strengthened the prime minister's leadership image. In a context of high tension, more than 80% of the Jewish population supported the offensive, and a large part of the political spectrum rallied behind the government. Some analysts pointed out that a quick end would have consolidated Netanyahu as the great political winner, and several polls indicated a slight improvement in voting intention.With Wednesday's ceasefire, considered by political and social sectors an unsatisfactory result, and the feeling that objectives such as the neutralization of Iran's nuclear and ballistic program or a regime change are far from being achieved, the success narrative has weakened.The latest polls reflect this trend. Likud, the prime minister's party, would go from 28 to 25 seats according to the poll by Israel's public broadcasting corporation, Kan, while Netanyahu's coalition would be around 51 seats, far from the 61 needed for a majority. In parallel, opposition parties would approach 59 seats. A significant part of this drop is explained by the rejection of the ceasefire with Iran, with 56% of respondents disagreeing.In this context, the elections scheduled before October 27 are shaping up as a referendum on three simultaneous fronts: the corruption trial, the management of the war, and the credibility of Netanyahu's leadership.

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"Being anti-Zionist in Israeli society is basically like a betrayal. It puts you at odds with friends and family. It's going against your own identity. They see you as crazy." Nadav Finebooch, of Israeli nationality but residing in Madrid since 2023, thus summarizes for ARA the contradiction and ostracism generated by being a dissident in Israel and raising a voice against the "genocide" perpetrated by Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Finebooch, far from a community in which he felt "as if I were living inside George Orwell's book1984, has joined a group of Israelis established in Spain who are calling on the international community to sanction Israel. Although they celebrate that Pedro Sánchez's government has so far championed the opposition to Netanyahu with the Gaza war, they ask him to act even more "forcefully".

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The real problem with what has happened in recent times in the Near East and Middle East is the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his permanent ultranationalist and militaristic forward flight to stay in power and thus evade the judicial cases that plague him. After the genocide perpetrated in Gaza in response to Hamas's terrorist attack, Israel has pushed the United States of Trump into a war against the ayatollahs' Iran and has taken advantage of the military escalation to unashamedly execute its expansionist ambitions in the region. The objective: to gain security space by destroying its historical enemies.

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There are unjust wars, wrong wars, and avoidable wars. But there is a worse one: war without purpose. This is where we find ourselves.

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"If you want proof that Iran endangers the entire world [...], it has attacked a civilian area with weapons capable of mass murder." This was said by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bibi Netanyahu, standing in front of a residential area in the Israeli city of Arad, which suffered an Iranian missile attack. This isn't about painting any Manichean picture in which the ayatollahs' regime appears "good," because it's a group of vicious beasts who mix ultranationalism and religious fundamentalism with unbridled and pathological greed: in this sense, it's no different from the governments they preside over. Someone will object that there is a fundamental difference, and that is that the Trump and Netanyahu governments are democratic, while the government now led by Mukhta Khamenei is a dictatorship. True, and this is precisely the tragedy: that certain rulers use democracy, and the legitimacy of the ballot box, to act like the most indecent dictatorship.

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It can be said in many ways, but the meaning is the same: Benjamin Netanyahu is the one steering the ship of the war. Even many Republicans in the US, who are far from being anti-Zionist, understand this. The excellent Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, Washington correspondent, who often speaks by phone with Donald Trump, put it this way: with each passing day, Trump identifies more and more with Netanyahu.

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We're ending the week with gasoline prices climbing and the war escalating. To give you an idea, the US Treasury Department has announced it will temporarily authorize countries to buy Russian oil from tankers in transit.Iran's new supreme leader, son of the previous one, says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed While Netanyahu remains silent and bombs, Trump speaks to continue occupying the center of the stage alone and says things like the increase in fuel prices is bringing many benefits to American companies.

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The war in the Middle East is a senseless act that only two leaders like Trump and Netanyahu could have orchestrated, leaders far more desperate than some would have us believe. Desperate to evade the consequences of their own (allegedly) criminal behavior: Netanyahu's presidency, including the genocide in Gaza, is a continuous flight forward to avoid facing trial for various charges, primarily corruption at multiple levels. For his part, Trump has truly succeeded in creating a distraction from the Epstein papers and his involvement in the pedophilia ring of the powerful in the West. The only Atlanticism Trump has ever known was the kind that brought together extremely wealthy pedophiles from both sides of the Atlantic on Little Saint James, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the pimp Epstein and his friends, guests, clients, and victims (often all four at once) committed their crimes. Just days before the Israeli-American attack, media outlets worldwide were reporting on a global earthquake in politics and high finance that had already led to the arrest, and a degree of public disgrace, of a Windsor, Prince Andrew. From February 28th onward, the date of the first US-Israeli attack on Iran, the trail of Epstein and his empire of depravity goes cold.

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I suppose it's clear by now that when we talk about the Iran war, we're talking about a conflict that, apart from the deaths and displacements that, for the moment, don't affect us, has economic consequences that do affect us, especially because the price of oil has skyrocketed and threatens to rise even further.

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As expected, the Iranian regime has responded to the US and Israeli offensive against its territory by attempting to prolong the conflict as much as possible, turning it into a regional war. From day one, Tehran attacked the Persian Gulf countries where US bases are located (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman), and this Monday, Hezbollah, Iran's allied militia in Lebanon, joined the fray, launching missiles at Israel. The conflict has even reached EU territory, as an Iranian drone struck a British base in Cyprus.

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Shortly after assuming the office of Prime Minister of Israel in 1996, Benjamin Netanyahu commissioned a report from a group of neoconservative experts on the future of the Middle East. The result was a kind of roadmap called Clean Break, which proposed a new regional order based on an Israeli-American hegemony sustained by the use of force. The rise to power of Donald Trump and the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2003, offered Netanyahu a golden opportunity to realize his dream of an Israel with uncontested dominance, what he now calls "the new Middle East." The war that began this Saturday is merely its culmination.

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The death of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, in an Israeli attack on the government complex in Tehran, carried out based on intelligence provided by the US CIA, marks a new chapter for the country. Khamenei had concentrated political and religious power for 37 years, and his death is an undeniable shift. A council composed of the president, the head of the judiciary, and a cleric has provisionally assumed his functions until an assembly of experts appoints a successor. However, the Israeli-American attack also eliminated other key figures in the Iranian leadership. The full extent of the regime's weakening remains to be seen, but it has clearly been compromised, prompting Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu to call on Iranians to overthrow the religious dictatorship that has ruled them until now. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime has reacted by attempting to escalate the conflict throughout the region, attacking Israel and US bases, as well as other targets in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman.

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The latest military adventure by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the attack on Iran, has a clear objective: to topple the ayatollahs' regime, change the country's government, and control the region. The US president has embarked on this mission spurred on by the success of the operation in Venezuela, where he managed to remove Nicolás Maduro in a lightning operation and, it seems, so far, impose upon him. de facto A government obedient to its interests. But Iran is not Venezuela, and the attack that began early Saturday morning is not a swift raid. Even if the Iranians, tired of the repressive and patriarchal regime under which they live, heed the call of Trump and Netanyahu and bring down their government, it will not be easy for another option to take hold. Moreover, the consequences of this military operation could affect an already quite unstable region in ways that are still difficult to predict. Iran has responded by attacking US bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, which could lead to an escalation of the conflict throughout the region. For the moment, it will be necessary to see what effects the attack may have on the flow of goods through the Strait of Hormuz, a key point for international trade. Iran already announced yesterday that it was beginning maneuvers to block it, and if successful, the economic consequences will be global in scale.

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We know from NOW that one Two-month-old baby has died In Gaza City, in a field hospital, due to the cold and the rainstorm. The newspaper wisely reveals his name, Arkan Firas Musleh, which likely hasn't reached Benjamin Netanyahu or Donald Trump, who are meeting in the United States to discuss that peace agreement, which doesn't directly concern them.

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Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, meetings with Benjamin Netanyahu have become practically routine. This Monday, the setting for the meeting—the fifth between the two leaders—was the Mar-a-Lago residence, which on Sunday hosted the US president's meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky. Analysts predicted that Netanyahu's delay in advancing the Gaza peace plan would strain relations with the White House, but Trump has closed ranks with his ally and passed the buck to Hamas. "Israel fulfilled the plan 100%," the US president asserted.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a pardon from the country's president. in the context of his corruption trial, which has been ongoing since 2020. According to Netanyahu, the legal proceedings are hindering his ability to govern, and a pardon would be positive for Israel.

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Donald Trump has long been trying to throw Benjamin Netanyahu a lifeline to prevent him from being convicted of corruption. Using Netanyahu as an example, the US president is pressuring his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog. so that he will pardon the prime ministerwho is accused of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases. The latest step he has taken has been to send a letter to Herzog formally requesting a presidential pardon, according to the Israeli president.

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