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By Hussain Sana
Benjamin Netanyahu, the enemy’s prime minister, might carry the adorable nickname of “Bibi” in Hebrew (and English by default, due to the Hebrew influence). However, in Arabic, his common name is “Neten” [stinky]. Since October 7, international media coverage has increasingly highlighted how unpopular he is. Criticizing Neten in this “antisemitic” (whatever antisemitism means these days!) sense includes American media like The Atlantic, Time and The Economist, among other magazines and platforms, which is very odd and unusual for such media platforms.
Questioning the popularity of Neten has also been increasingly noticeable in Zionist local media. This raises a question: If Neten is so unpopular, how come he is still in power? And how dare all these media and journalism institutions engage in such “antisemitic” discourse by criticizing the Zionist prime minister?
By now, the Likud chairman has been in power longer than Ben Gurion, for over a total of 16 years. His political survival has exceeded many of his Zionist rival politicians and has aligned of late with the shift of Zionist local politics further towards the right, a fascistic regime that shifted further towards fascism. The Zionist entity under Neten’s policies expanded settlements significantly, in a move towards annexing the West Bank (maybe for good, to demonstrate how unrealistic the two-state solution is).
Neten enabled Zionist supremacists and included them in his government. He recently gave his fourth speech at the US Congress, surrounded by applause and cheers this time, despite the absence of many Democrats. As far as I know, this is the highest number of speeches any foreign leader has given in Congress!
However, Neten’s political career seems to be on the decline. The unpopular judicial adjustment that he introduced sparked one of the largest protests in the Zionist entity that accused him of trying to place the judiciary under his political influence. Before October 7, his actions seemed to aim at tweaking public matters to protect himself from a very real threat of imprisonment over corruption charges, going as far as allying with the ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties.
He failed domestically in providing the expected support to tens of thousands of Zionists displaced after October 7. Photos of his son Yair Netanyahu enjoying the beaches in Miami led to controversy, while other Zionist youths were sent to Gaza in military operations. Instead of holding himself accountable for the Zionist security failure on October 7, Neten blamed the heads of the army, Shin Bet and other security apparatuses.
Neten’s diplomacy has also witnessed a setback, as foreign relations deteriorated with multiple countries, and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for him and his “defense” minister Gallant, for obvious war crimes in Gaza. Polls have shown all-time low levels of Neten’s unpopularity amongst Zionists.
Who is still supporting Neten then? How come he is still in power? There are the far-right partners in the government who are lobbying to rebuild the settlements in Gaza after displacing its Palestinians. There are also the ultra-Orthodox groups that are still supporting him, as long as he prevents the drafting of their youth into the “secular” army.
While many Zionists are protesting the war and on not negotiating the prisoners’ return, the close allies of Neten such as Ben Gvir and Smotrich threatened to topple the government if the war ends. Since wars are exceptional times, Neten might manage to run forward and escape any accountability.
Neten might be losing ground but his politics resonate with most Zionists. The settler society (all settler colonizers, on all of Palestine) might dislike Neten, but support the war in Gaza. In one recent poll, 63 percent of Zionists do not support the creation of an independent and demilitarized Palestinian state. They are right in their decisions, as independence and liberation are matters that are obtained with blood and force — they are not given as gifts.
It is common consensus that many Zionists still want “victory in the war against Hamas” and “military pressure to be applied to Hamas so that it agrees to acceptable conditions for the release of prisoners”. The Gaza death toll and destruction do not mean much to the Zionists, who are indifferent to Palestinian suffering. Accusations of genocide and war crimes are viewed as “antisemitism” rather than facts. Neten is not imposed upon this society, but rather an actual “democratic” representative of it.
While the colonial supremacist movement of Zionism is doomed to fail by laws of history, many pro-Zionists across the globe want to scapegoat Neten as the carrier of the current crimes and guilts. So that when this round is over, and he is ousted from power, this colonial project carries on for the next round. Neten is guilty of the crimes of now, but so is the whole Zionist project, and its American, European and Arab supporters. Neten is guilty, but so was Olmert, and so is that Arab news channel that hosted him during the current war to brand him as a moderate. These are all different shades of Zionism, and we are aware.
