Netanyahu is leading Israel into ruin: Der Spiegel

TEHRAN – In a commentary published on December 4, German magazine Der Spiegel said Benjamin Netanyahu is waging an endless war in Gaza and delivering Israel into the arms of extremist right wings to stay in power.

Der Spiegel was openly referring to some notorious members of Netanyahu’s cabinet including Itamar Ben Gvir who is a convicted supporter of terrorism, and Bezalel Smotrich who defends annexing the Gaza Strip.

The following is part of the article:

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for both the Israeli Prime Minister and his former defense minister. With that, Netanyahu is the first freely elected head of government in the world who is suspected of being a war criminal by the judges in The Hague. Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, a country that experienced the worst attack in its history on October 7, 2023, is now officially a suspect.

In Israel, all politicians, including Netanyahu’s adversaries, voice criticism of the arrest warrant.

Netanyahu, the victim. That is his modus operandi, and it has been for years. In foreign policy, in domestic policy, in his personal affairs: It has always been somebody else’s fault. The media, the judiciary, the opposition, the rest of the world, all unjustifiably criticizing him, persecuting him. It is a narrative that has propelled him to numerous election victories, many of them coming after his political career had been declared over. And it keeps his government going, despite ongoing corruption proceedings. Now 75 years old, Netanyahu has served as Israel’s head of government for a total of 17 years.

The Hamas attack was the worst day in the country’s history. Some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 abducted and taken to Gaza. Many Israelis believe that Netanyahu bears a share of the responsibility because a number of warnings went unheeded. For a time, Netanyahu was the least liked politician in the country. These days, while his government may not have a majority according to current public opinion polls, his party, the national-conservative Likud, remains the strongest. Snap elections don’t appear to be in the near future. Indeed, Netanyahu just recently expanded his coalition by adding the parliamentary group of a former rival. The fact that thousands, even tens of thousands of Israelis take to the streets every week in anti-Netanyahu demonstrations, including former allies and men like his ex-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon? Doesn’t matter. The prime minister has a solid grip on power.

“Netanyahu, who hit rock bottom on October 7, once again has very high approval ratings,” says Shtrauchler.  Everything is going well for the prime minister – and soon, Donald Trump, who is a huge supporter of Israel, will be moving back into the White House. “I suspect he is waking up every morning with a smile on his face,” says Shtrauchler.

Shtrauchler’s narrative of post-October 7 Netanyahu is that of a man who has once again managed to free himself from his troubles. Just as Gulliver broke loose from his chains.

But the story can also be told another way: as one of a weak, detested prime minister who is clinging so desperately to his office that he has delivered Israel into the hands of the settlers and the racists. “Because no one else wanted to deal with Netanyahu anymore, he brought the most extreme right-wing people imaginable into his coalition,” says Raviv Drucker, 54, perhaps the best-known investigative journalist in the country. “He gave them enormous power. And since then, we have all been trapped in this nightmare. If the right-wing extremists didn’t have Netanyahu in their grip, the war in Gaza would have been over months ago.”

A potential prison sentence for Bibi

In this narrative, Netanyahu is pulling an entire country down with him as he fights for political survival. A prime minister who has made Israel’s position in the region more tenuous with the war in Gaza, in addition to dividing the international community and triggering protests around the world against the Jewish state.

Which narrative is the correct one?

Der Spiegel spoke with the family members of hostages, political observers and military leaders in addition to former members of Netanyahu’s inner circle and others who used to work for him. A handful of them still hold Bibi, as he is widely known in Israel, in high regard. Many others, though, have become adversaries, their past experiences with the prime minister now leading them to issue warnings about him. They believe Netanyahu is dangerous because, in their telling, his primary goal is not that of pursuing the country’s best interest, but of remaining in office. Because otherwise, there is a chance he could end up in prison. And that, many believe, means that he is essentially capable of anything.

Which is why, before attention can be focused on October 7, the war and its consequences, it must first be turned to rosé champagne, Cohiba cigars and a diamond-studded bracelet worth $42,000. Though there is also a link between the war and the Cohibas.

A date is approaching that poses a greater threat to Netanyahu than the arrest warrant from The Hague: On December 10, he must testify in the district court in Jerusalem. The indictment accuses him of fraud, bribery and breach of trust on several counts. If convicted, he could face several years in prison.

Essentially, the case revolves around three cases that share a similar pattern: Netanyahu and his wife Sara are thought to have received champagne, cigars and jewelry worth several hundred thousand euros – including the diamond-studded bracelet that, according to a witness, Sara Netanyahu wanted to “exchange” because her husband found it too “Romanian,” too ostentatious.

In addition, Netanyahu received something that he likely valued far more highly: nice photos and friendly headlines in the largest media outlets in the country, including the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth and the online news portal Walla. In exchange, such outlets were promised tax breaks, competitive advantages and other favors.

The investigation into Jlpossible improprieties began eight years ago and the trial has now been underway for four years, but over and over again, Netanyahu has been able to push back his testimony. Now, though, if nothing completely unexpected takes place, he will soon find himself having to appear in court three times a week – potentially over a period of several months.

“Netanyahu could have resigned as Ehud Olmert and Yitzhak Rabin once did,” says Raviv Drucker, the investigative journalist, who works for the broadcaster Channel 13. “But our prime minister decided to do the unthinkable: He simply stayed in office and began fighting for his survival.”

Drucker has uncovered numerous affairs and scandals, but Netanyahu’s corruption is his primary focus. He is likely the journalist for whom Netanyahu harbors the most animosity, and the prime minister has sued him three times. “Always unsuccessfully.” He even tried to ramp up pressure on the broadcaster where Drucker used to work to get the journalist fired. But Drucker refused to back down. Now, he is also involved in “The Bibi Files,” which will be released on December 11 on the streaming platform Jolt.

At the heart of the documentary are police recordings of witness interrogations that were leaked to the filmmakers Alexis Bloom and Alex Gibney. They show everything: wealthy benefactors and employees who handled the delivery of the gifts to the Netanyahus. And the couple at the center of the affair: Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu.

“You are asking me delusional questions,” says the prime minister in the documentary’s introductory scene, his hand pounding angrily on the desk. In contrast to other witnesses, he is not questioned by the police in a sparse interrogation room, but in his office, a large map of the Middle East hanging on the wall behind him. “This is preposterous and insane. You are trying to incriminate the prime minister on nonsense.”

During the questioning, Netanyahu gesticulates frequently, often crosses his arms in apparent disgust and makes no secret of his irritation. At times, he is charming, but more often, his voice takes on a lecturing tone. He doesn’t count bottles, he fires back when asked about the amount of champagne he received, but “the number of rockets pointed at us.” Mostly, though, his responses are terse: “I don’t know,” or “I don’t remember.” Many of the witnesses, though, insist that Netanyahu has prodigious powers of recollection.

Sara Netanyahu, for her part, prefers a more confrontational, aggressive approach. She denies everything, insulting and yelling at the police officers. When asked about interfering in press coverage, she insists: “I just want a little positive, objective and balanced press!” And: “The people will never know about all the good things I do!”

A flamethrower for a pyromaniac

“The Bibi Files” exposes the Netanyahus as a rapacious couple with no cognizance of having done anything wrong – and shows the dramatic effect that has on politics, media and society.

Netanyahu usually has only about a quarter of Israeli voters behind him, but he has consistently been able to assemble enough coalition partners to become prime minister. After the election in late 2022, he was only able to form a governing coalition with the ultra-Orthodox and the right-wing extremists. Itamar Ben-Gvir, a convicted racist and supporter of terrorism, became minister of national security. Bezalel Smotrich, who was handed the finance portfolio. Both are the kind of extremists who had previously been unacceptable in positions of political leadership.

The first of them has been doing what he can since his appointment to get the police behind him. The other is pushing ahead with settlement construction in the West Bank at a record pace. It has been like handing a flamethrower to a pyromaniac.

Israeli right-wing extremists envision a Greater Israel stretching from Jordan to the Mediterranean, within which Palestinians have few rights or, ideally, disappear completely. Most ultra-Orthodox, meanwhile, want to be as free from influence from the secular state as possible and insist on retaining their special privileges – such as a continuation of their conscription exemption and of lavish funding for their communities. Both groups have a common adversary: the Israeli judiciary.

It is for that reason that the government, immediately upon taking office in winter 2022, launched a “judicial reform” aimed at stripping the country’s highest court of most of its powers. Because the country has no constitution, the Supreme Court of Israel is the only organ that serves as a corrective to politics.

“Netanyahu has essentially relinquished the West Bank to the sometimes-violent settlers, damning Israel to an endless conflict with the Palestinians.”

A majority of Israelis correctly understood the project of “judicial reform” as an attack on the separation of powers. Over the course of several months, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to demonstrate against the planned reform – a wave of protests that came to an end on October 7, 2023. And judicial reform was put on the back burner.

“I am convinced, though, that the government intends to pick it up again. It’s not just Ben-Gvir and Smotrich who want it, Netanyahu also wants to destroy these institutions so that he can do whatever he wants,” says a man who was once a close ally to the prime minister. Today, he sees Netanyahu as a threat.

“Israel’s fate shifted with the corruption investigations, and that is a great tragedy for Israel. For all of us. Netanyahu makes every decision, really every single one – be it military, political, financial or personal – with this in mind.” He is, the man says, prepared to do anything to stay in power, believing that it is the only way he can avoid a conviction.

The man wishes to remain anonymous, and even asked that the site of our meeting remain secret. He is afraid of what he calls Netanyahu’s “poison machine” – attacks on social media from pro-Netanyahu journalists and mudslinging from Bibi’s troll army. “If I were to go public, they would destroy my life.”

He, too, has stories to tell of wealthy businessmen who would bring along tailor-made suits for the prime minister and jewelry for his wife. And not just on one occasion, but regularly. “Netanyahu believes that he is entitled to it,” says the one-time confidant. “He sees himself as something between a king and a president.”

The former confidant says that Netanyahu no longer differentiates between himself and the state, in part because the prime minister is convinced that everything he is doing to stay in power is ultimately in the service of the country – because he alone can protect Israel.

Ever since the beginning of the investigations in 2016, the former confidant says, Netanyahu has been doing all he can to obstruct justice. Not only has he timed his trips abroad to avoid being questioned, the man alleges, but he has also launched campaigns against the police, the Supreme Court and public prosecutors. And his efforts have met with significant success, the former confidant believes. “Ask the people on the street. They will tell you that these institutions are corrupt and controlled by the leftists, who want to topple Bibi.”

During his own interrogation in the corruption case, their 33-year-old son Yair insulted the police as “Stasi” and “Gestapo,” the dreaded secret police forces of East Germany and Nazi Germany, respectively. On X, he has posted numerous unhinged tirades against his father’s political opponents over the years, a habit that has resulted in several court appearances. Most recently, he accused the country’s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, of wanting to overthrow his father. And he celebrated Donald Trump’s election victory in the U.S. by posting: “Hallelujah!!!” Many of those interviewed for this article believe that Yair Netanyahu says out loud what his father is thinking.

In recent years, Benjamin Netanyahu has continually inched ever closer to autocrats and right-wing populists around the world, including Argentinian President Javier Milei, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and, of course, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. He backed Trump in the U.S. campaign from the very beginning, despite almost unconditional support for Israel from U.S. President Joe Biden over the last 14 months. But for Netanyahu, Trump is even more appealing. His first term in office was a fruitful period for the Israeli prime minister, with Trump moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, as the Israeli right had long been hoping for. But his second term could even be better. The settlers in the West Bank also celebrated the election result and have declared 2025 to be the “year of annexation.”

“Netanyahu says he wants to save Israel, but in reality, he is destroying it,” says the one-time confidant. Because every move toward a Palestinian state would rupture his coalition and scare off his right-wing base, the former confidant says, Netanyahu has essentially relinquished the West Bank to the sometimes-violent settlers – damning Israel to an endless conflict with the Palestinians.

For the prime minister, says journalist Anshel Pfeffer, who has written a biography of Netanyahu and now works for the Economist, the Palestinians have never been the “real issue,” rather his focus is more on Iran and its allies. With these issues, says Pfeffer, Netanyahu is in his “comfort zone.” Pfeffer adds: “He never wanted to have anything to do with Gaza.”

As leader of the opposition in 2009, he demanded a “clear victory” over Hamas in Gaza. That, though, was little more than a slogan, not unlike today’s version, “total victory.” He had hardly entered office before it was no longer mentioned.

Instead, Netanyahu built a high-tech border fence, while at the same time allowing Qatar to transport $30 million in cash per month through Israel to Gaza in suitcases. “He nourished the extremists and weakened the moderates,” says Pfeffer.

“Netanyahu may not have wanted this war (in Gaza),” says Pfeffer. “But now, he also doesn’t want it to end.”

It is a war by slogans,” says Pfeffer, “not by strategy.”

The coastal strip is now little more than a heap of rubble. 

“There is nothing left to do in Gaza. The major achievements have been achieved,” the fired defense minister Yoav Gallant was quoted as saying in a recent meeting with the families of hostages. The International Criminal Court has also issued an arrest warrant against Gallant. “I fear we are staying there just because there is a desire to be there.” Netanyahu’s decision against making a hostage deal and agreeing to a ceasefire, Gallant allegedly said, was neither for military nor for diplomatic concerns.

More than anything, though, it seems that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war because to do so, he would have to make a deal with Hamas for the hostages. Otherwise, the hostages will not be released – that much has become clear in the more than 400 days that have passed since the terror attack. That is the reason why even large parts of army leadership have been in favor of a hostage deal since spring. Such a deal, however, would result in the right-wing extremists leaving the coalition and allowing the government to fall. To stay in power, the prime minister’s only choice is to continue the military operation. In contrast to the war against Hezbollah: There, too, Ben-Gvir voted against the ceasefire, but he did not threaten to leave the coalition. Which means that military operations in Lebanon have come to an end for now.

When it comes to Gaza, however, it seems – as brutal as it sounds – that Netanyahu has decided in favor of clinging to office. And against the hostages.