Theres a timeless Chinese proverb which warns: The higher the monkey climbs, the more he shows his tail.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, seems to heed neither the lessons of history nor the wisdom of such folk sayings.By leading a vilification campaign against Egypt, the Israeli leader is further exposing his countrys vulnerabilities.
This is yet another example of Israels inability to alter the political reality in Gaza, 17 months after it launched its devastating war on the Palestinians in the Strip.By targeting Egypt, Israel aims to project an image of prowess, and that it is unafraid to confront the most populous Arab nation.
Yet, in doing so, it inadvertently exposes its own weaknesses.
This behavior is wholly consistent with Netanyahus legacy of running away forward.Long before October 7, 2023, Netanyahu was riding a wave of political euphoria.
At the time, his relentless climb to greater heights seemed justified.
His Global South diplomacy was reversing decades of Israeli isolation, and his success in gaining international recognition without paying a significant political price earned him immense popularity at home, and he kept winning election after election.His latest extreme right-wing coalition secured a comfortable majority in the Knesset, facing little pushback.
The extremists were poised to transform Israel from within, reconfigure the region and, with the usual unconditional support from the United States, position Israel as a global power commanding respect and authority.However, October 7 and Israels catastrophic failure on all fronts exposed Netanyahus tail as a failed leader.The crisis quickly manifested itself in global outrage as Israel carried out a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing and wounding over 160,000, mainly women and children, over 15 months.
The Israeli tail was exposed further as the once-confident leader, who promised tirelessly to reshape the Middle East to fit Israels agenda, became a wanted criminal when the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him on November 21, 2024, while his country faces investigations by the International Court of Justice for the crime of genocide.Yet Netanyahu climbed even higher, doubling down on his approach.
He insisted on continuing the war in Gaza, maintaining a military presence in Lebanon, and carrying out frequent and massive bombing campaigns in Syria.Bravado aside, Netanyahu has still failed to achieve any of Israels stated objectives through the devastating war on Gaza, which has also cost Israel unprecedented losses and casualties.
Meanwhile, the divisions among the political and military elites are deepening.
The latest manifestation of this is the firing of many senior military officers and the reordering of the army to align with Netanyahus political ambitions.The more Israels vulnerabilities are exposed, the more Netanyahu and his allies intensify their threats, not only against Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, but also against Egypt.
In fact, Egypt, which is not a party to the war and has been one of three mediators in ceasefire talks, has become the primary target of Israels new strategy aimed at ethnically cleansing Gazas population into the Sinai Desert.How did this come about?Egypt was hardly a factor in the Israeli war on Gaza.
Yet, as the genocide dragged on, with no possibility of a total victory, senior Israeli officials began pointing fingers at Egypt, with which Israel has a peace treaty, remember.The idea of taking over the Philadelphi corridor separating the city of Rafah in southern Gaza from the Egyptian border, was first floated by extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Others, including Netanyahu himself, soon began parroting the same words.
In the media, the language took an even more foreboding turn, with some accusing Egypt of arming Hamas, or of not doing enough to stop the flow of weapons to the Palestinian resistance movement.When Egypt rejected Israeli accusations and refused to accommodate the occupation regimes wish to ethnically cleanse Gaza, Israeli leaders began talking of an Egyptian military threat, alleging that Egypt was amassing troops on its border with Israel.The original aim of roping Egypt into Israels failed war was meant to create a distraction from the battlefield.
Eventually, however, the distraction turned into deflection and the blaming of Egypt for Israels inability to win the war or to displace the Palestinian population of Gaza.To some extent, Netanyahu has succeeded in making Egypt part of the conversation on Gaza.With US President Donald Trump proposing repeatedly the displacement of Palestinians and the takeover of Gaza, the Israeli leader felt that, finally, he had a clear American commitment to export Israels problems elsewhere.Even the leader of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, used Egypt to distract from his own failure to mount a serious challenge to Netanyahus rule.
On February 25, Lapid proposed at a conference in Washington that Cairo should oversee the Strip for a number of years.While Palestinians, Arabs and others reacted angrily to the Israel-US ethnic cleansing schemes, few paid attention to the fact that, historically, Israel has never sought permission to ethnically cleanse Palestinians.
This was as true during the 1948 Nakba as it is today.
Putting pressure on Arab countries to acquiesce in Israels ethnic cleansing plans is the strongest sign yet of Israels weakness.Tough talk and threats aside, Israel finds itself in a more vulnerable position than at any point in its history.
It is clear that it is now using the Arabs to mask its own vulnerabilities.
And although the monkey continues to climb, his tail has never been exposed as much as it is today.Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the editor of the Palestine Chronicle.Source: Middle East Monitor