Only one thing is certain: as Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, has been “officially a wanted man” since yesterday. But how Israel’s longest-serving prime minister netanyahu, the man who managed to remain at the helm of the country after the worst massacre in the history of the Jewish state, now intends to play his game, is currently unclear.
Previously, his office had spoken of a “modern Dreyfus trial” denouncing its “anti-Semitic” streak.The tones on the other side were, of course, opposite, with the Palestinian National Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) speaking of “a sign of hope and trust in international law and its institutions”, while Hamas in a note invited the court to “expand the search for accountability to all the criminal leaders of the occupation”.The Hague’s decision comes at a very delicate moment for Netanyahu: two of his closest collaborators, under house arrest for days, have been formally accused of having carried out. According to investigators, they are said to have manipulated classified information and passed it on to the press in an attempt to strengthen the vision of the prime minister, who is against the ceasefire with Hamas: a fact that has caused deep anger among the families of the 97 hostages still in Gaza and among that part of the public opinion that supports them.
The Important Date December 2
But that’s not all: on December 2, Netanyahu himself will be called to testify before the judges in the two corruption cases for which he has been under investigation for years. For months, the prime minister has managed to postpone the appointment, justifying his absence with the need to lead the country during the war. But now the issue that has been weighing on his head for years is knocking on his door again.
All this leads those who oppose the prime minister to consider the request from The Hague as the last, reprehensible, episode of a leadership that must exit the scene as soon as possible: “We can describe it as an outrage, an episode of anti-Semitism or an incorrect move: but at the moment it is a reality. But it is unlikely that these types of positions will prevail: “Those who support Netanyahu will not change their minds because of the arrest warrant. The prime minister will use it to present himself even more as the only man strong enough to defend Israel in front of the world. And for this he is paying a very high price”, Yehuda Mirsky, professor at Brandeis University in Boston, explains to us by phone from Jerusalem.
Thesis By Netanyahu
This is a thesis by Netanyahu that aims to discredit those who criticize him from the center or the left – Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkhot who lead the National Unity Party, but also Yair Golan at the head of Labour and Meretz – but leaves the flank exposed to the only politician who for months has seemed capable of questioning his leadership, Naftali Bennett.
A former prime minister, a man of the right like him and like him close to the settler movement, with similar positions on the war but less compromised than him. The latest surveys say that if he were to decide to return to the scene and run, his party would take 23 seats against the 24 of Netanyahu’s Likud. A significant result for a movement that at the moment not only does not have a name and a symbol, but does not even exist: but that since yesterday, thanks to the decision of the Court in The Hague, has an extra arrow in its bow.