Netanyahu’s vision for a new Middle East: Hegemony, not harmony

For years, before the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was clear about his political stance on the future of the territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the universally accepted two-state solution path to end decades of regional conflict. Netanyahu rose to power by demonising the Oslo Accords and inciting Jewish radicals against Israeli politicians who believed in a territorial compromise with the Palestinians.

Under his watch, stretching from the end of the 1990s until today, the 75-year-old Likud leader—and the longest-reigning premier in Israeli history—has managed to alienate and isolate Israel’s long-ruling left while pushing the country toward the right and, more recently, the far right. Since the end of 2022, Netanyahu has led a coalition government formed after he allied himself with ultra-religious and ultra-nationalist parties whose political platforms reject the concept of Palestinian statehood and push for the annexation of all occupied territory.

Mired in political scandals that could land him in jail and seal his fate, Netanyahu launched the most critical takeover of the state’s constitutional institutions since Israel’s founding. That campaign was interrupted by the Hamas attacks and the subsequent war on Gaza, but in recent weeks, Netanyahu and his partners have resumed the assault on the independent judiciary. The outcome of that attempted hijacking of the state is yet to be determined.

Critics have warned that Netanyahu’s bid threatens to trigger a civil war. In recent weeks, army, air force, and naval reservists have declined to report for duty, claiming that Netanyahu is waging war on Gaza for his political agenda while ensuring that none of the remaining Israeli captives in the enclave return alive.

Israel’s resumption of the war on Gaza after a 42-day truce carries no strategic value. Hamas had agreed to a three-phase plan that would have, if carried through, ended its grip on the enclave. The Arab states had adopted a plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing its inhabitants, which would have placed a non-partisan administrative body in charge. More importantly for the families of the Israeli captives, it would have provided for the release of all those alive.

But Netanyahu and his extremist coalition partners would have none of that, even if it meant the killing of all remaining Israelis held by Hamas. The far-right camp wants to carry out the genocidal war and fulfill President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Gaza be emptied of its inhabitants—an idea as unlikely and outrageous as it is illegal.

In the wake of the degradation of Hamas and Hezbollah, the swift fall of the Assad regime, and the blows that Iran suffered both politically and militarily, Netanyahu wasted no opportunity to brag about a new Middle East that Israel was reshaping.

In his view, the new Middle East would see Israel emerge as a regional superpower—a match for Iran, Turkey, and any Arab country that dares to stand in its path. His fanatic coalition partners began speaking openly about Israel extending its territory into Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and beyond.

And while Israel was carrying out a bloodbath in Gaza, Netanyahu’s coalition partners were implementing a plan to annex more West Bank territory by demolishing refugee camps, expropriating land, cutting off Palestinian towns and cities, and unleashing settler terror against the locals.

Netanyahu has all but pronounced the Oslo Accords dead. His ministers are choking the Palestinian Authority (PA) financially. Israel has breached every agreement it signed with the PA. Its complete annexation of the West Bank and most of Gaza is now a matter of time.

And yet, Netanyahu speaks of a new Middle East—of expanding the Abraham Accords, of never allowing the Palestinians to have their state, of displacing millions in Gaza, and of never withdrawing from Syrian territory. He keeps quoting from the Old Testament and the Talmud about how Israel has defeated its enemies, making the case for a perpetual religious conflict.

Israel’s neighbors must consider this seismic change in its character that Netanyahu and his partners are now carrying out. While Netanyahu is using war as a pretext to brush off threats to his political survival, the region is now viewing Israel as the biggest threat to its stability.

This is not the Israel with which Anwar Sadat, King Hussein, and Yasser Arafat agreed to make peace. Indeed, this is not what the Abraham Accords are about. The premise was that Israel wanted to be accepted as a normal state in this region. The cornerstone of all these agreements was that Israel would reach a just and lasting settlement with the Palestinians.

But this is not what Netanyahu and his fanatic partners want. They see an opportunity for Israel to become a regional hegemon, driven by ultra-nationalists and ultra-religious parties who hold fascist, racist, and supremacist ideologies. The question is: how can such an entity survive and coexist while holding such reprehensible views and territorial ambitions fueled by fundamentalist religious dogma?

- Osama Al Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman.