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A timeless Chinese proverb warns: “The higher the monkey climbs, the more he shows his tail.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, seems to neither heed 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 country’s vulnerabilities. This is yet another example of Israel’s inability to alter the political reality in Gaza, 17 months after it launched its devastating war on the Strip.
By targeting Egypt, Israel aims to project an image of prowess and show 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 Netanyahu's legacy of running away forward.
Long before the Oct. 7, 2023, war, 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.
In Israel, Netanyahu won one election after another. His current right-wing extremist coalition secured a comfortable majority in the Knesset in late 2022, facing little pushback. The extremists were poised to transform Israel from within, reconfigure the region and, with the usual unconditional support from the US, position Israel as a global power commanding respect and authority.
However, Oct. 7 and Israel’s catastrophic failure on all fronts exposed Netanyahu’s tail as a failed leader. The crisis quickly manifested in global outrage, as Israel carried out a genocidal war on the Palestinians, killing or wounding more than 160,000 people in the course of 15 months. The Israeli tail was further exposed as the once-confident leader, who tirelessly promised to reshape the Middle East to fit Israel’s agenda, became the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while his country faced investigations for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice.
Yet Netanyahu climbed ever 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 Israel’s stated objectives through the devastating war on Gaza — a war that has seen Israel suffer unprecedented losses and casualties. Meanwhile, the divisions among the political and military elites are deepening. The latest manifestation of this was January’s ousting of many top military officers and the apparent reordering of the army to align with Netanyahu’s political ambitions.
The more Israel’s 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 the ceasefire talks, has become the primary target of Israel’s new strategy, which is aimed at ethnically cleansing Gaza’s population into the Sinai desert.
By leading a vilification campaign against Egypt, the Israeli leader is further exposing his country’s vulnerabilities
Ramzy Baroud
But how did this come about?
Egypt was hardly a factor in the Israeli war on Gaza. Yet, as the war dragged on, with no possibility of a “total victory,” top Israeli officials began pointing fingers at Egypt.
The idea of taking over the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates 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 his words.
In the media, the language has been even more foreboding, with some accusing Egypt of arming Hamas or of not doing enough to stop the flow of weapons to the Palestinian resistance.
When Egypt rejected Israel’s accusations and refused to accommodate its wish to ethnically cleanse Gaza, Israeli leaders began talking of an Egyptian military threat, alleging that Cairo was amassing troops at its border with Israel.
The original aim of roping Egypt into Israel’s failed war was meant to create a distraction from the battlefield. Eventually, however, the distraction turned into deflection: blaming Egypt for Israel’s inability to win the war or to displace the population of Gaza.
To some extent, Netanyahu has succeeded in making Egypt part of the conversation on Gaza. With US President Donald Trump repeatedly proposing the displacement of Palestinians and a US takeover of the Strip, the Israeli leader feels that he finally has a clear American commitment to export Israel’s 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 Netanyahu’s rule. At a conference in Washington last month, he proposed that Cairo oversee the Strip for a number of years.
While Palestinians, Arabs and others have 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 give in to its ethnic cleansing plans is the strongest sign yet of Israel’s weakness.
Tough talk and threats aside, Israel today finds itself in a more vulnerable position than at any point in its history. It is now using the Arabs to mask its own vulnerabilities. And though the monkey continues to climb, its tail has never been as exposed as it is today.
• Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and author. He is editor of The Palestine Chronicle and nonresident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappe, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out.” X: @RamzyBaroud