Benjamin Netanyahu has overseen a genocide: In his telling, he’s a victim

Live Click here to searchsearchSign upNavigation menucaret-left caret-rightANALYSISNews|Benjamin NetanyahuBenjamin Netanyahu has overseen a genocide: In his telling, he’s a victimAhead of Israel’s national elections, Netanyahu reaches for an old playbook: grievance, blame-shifting and victimhood.

1. list 1 of 4What’s behind Netanyahu’s condemnation of this weekend’s settler pogroms.
2. list 2 of 4Israeli PM Netanyahu in Gaza, ‘we are not withdrawing’.
3. list 4 of 4ICC leaders condemn efforts to erode international legal order.
4. Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights.
5. Benjamin Netanyahu has overseen a genocide: In his telling, he’s a victim | Benjamin Netanyahu News | Al Jazeera Skip linksSkip to Contentplay Live Sign upShow navigation menuNavigation menu.

Liste 3 de 4 Yair Netanyahu, filho do primeiro‑ministro israelense, irrita a direita britânica sobre as Ilhas Malvinas.

Now, as he heads to his 13th parliamentary election, Netanyahu is relying on an old strategy that he has deployed for years, critics say — responding to accusations that might normally end a political career with deflections, subterfuge and claims of victimhood.

Nos últimos dias, uma história veiculada pelo jornal diário israelense Haaretz, que afirma que os Emirados Árabes Unidos deram a Netanyahu aviso prévio do ataque liderado pelo Hamas em 2023, tem sido recebida não com reflexão, mas com ação legal, contra‑acusações e alegações de “interferência estrangeira” nas eleições de Israel.

Uma semana antes, Netanyahu supervisionou o lançamento de um anúncio político que o retratava como uma criança vítima de bullying.

In the video, a child is portrayed who – it is revealed – is being picked on by anti-Netanyahu classmates, with signs of “anyone but Bibi”, referring to Israel’s prime minister and leader of the right-wing Likud party.

Netanyahu has been prime minister for 18 years across three separate periods and has been widely acknowledged as a key player in shifting Israeli politics to the right.

But despite this, he has still been eager to use populist discourses to portray himself as fighting the establishment as a perpetual victim of the system.

A psicóloga política israelense Neta Oren, da Universidade George Mason, disse ao Al Jazeera que a auto‑vitimização é uma parte importante do manual de Netanyahu, e isso continua na sua próxima campanha eleitoral.

Recently, Netanyahu has appeared to compete with the country’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for the legacy of the far-right Zionist militia Irgun, which was contained once the first Israeli government, led by David Ben-Gurion, came to power in 1949.

Rival news conferences have been held by the two Israeli party leaders to commemorate the “oppression” of the militia, which was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians and British soldiers during the Palestinian Mandate period.

Essas táticas parecem ter sido retiradas do mesmo manual político usado por políticos populistas em todo o mundo: aliar-se a quem se sente em oposição ao Estado e distanciar-se de seus escândalos anteriores.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu attempted to deflect blame for his alleged failures ahead of and during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, claiming that “defence officials” had deliberately chosen not to wake him during the first hours of an attack that he would otherwise have contained.

His wife Sara Netanyahu appeared to go further, suggesting to the pro-government Channel 14 last month that opposition leader and former General Yair Golan’s reaction to the assault — when he woke up and drove directly to the site of the attack — suggested that he must have known of Hamas’s plans in advance.

Such methods have been used by other politicians, such as United States President Donald Trump, Hungary’s Viktor Orban and India’s Narendra Modi. But Netanyahu’s use of victimisation by the “establishment” goes back further to around when former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, claiming that Israel’s left had forgotten what it meant to be Jewish.

Analysts describe Netanyahu’s particular brand of populism as intended for a specifically Israeli audience and a shared sense of Zionist and Jewish identity among his party’s Likud base.

Similarly, many of Likud’s supporters are Mizrahi, drawn from migrants from across the Middle East and North Africa and typically come from lower-income backgrounds.

Eles se ajustam por experiência ao se perceberem como opostos ao estabelecimento Ashkenazi europeu em Israel, algo que Netanyahu tem se empenhado em alimentar.

Dani Filc, a professor at Ben Gurion University and author of the book Hegemony and Populism in Israel, said that Netanyahu’s claim to victimhood is a common feature in populist narratives.

This discourse has dominated Netanyahu’s repeated confrontations with the judiciary and media since 2023.

Both Netanyahu’s 2020 corruption trial and his judicial overhaul have been cast by the Israeli right-wing not as legal or constitutional processes, but as a battle against a so-called unelected “deep state”, with its members, they claim, including the media and judiciary.

Daniel Bar-Tal, professor of psychology at Tel Aviv University, said this narrative has allowed him to distance himself from government failures.

Publicidade Conectar Mostrar mais Nossos Canais Nossa Rede Seguir Al Jazeera English.