Though the president wields great power, the conflict in the Middle East is spiralling in unforeseen ways that he may not be able to control
W
hat a pity Benjamin Netanyahu remains at large after an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza was issued in 2024. Had he been detained, as he certainly should have been, the peoples of Iran, Lebanon, the Gulf – and Israel itself – might have been spared much present-day pain and suffering.
The Israeli prime minister’s lifelong, passionate obsession with eradicating the real and imagined threats posed by Iran was reportedly a key factor in prompting Donald Trump’s abrupt, unprovoked plunge into all-out war. Netanyahu should be in jail, not committing more crimes while the powerful but ego-driven US president negligently looks on.
Netanyahu ridicules claims that he dragged the US into war. “Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?” he asked this week. “He didn’t need any convincing.” But Oman’s foreign minister flatly contradicts him, saying Netanyahu’s opposition convinced Trump to abandon indirect talks with Iran, overseen by Oman in Geneva, that were close to success.
