Beirut, Lebanon – Gal Hirsch has no recognized expertise in hostage negotiations, and in 2006, he left the Israeli forces, disgraced over his function in army failures through the warfare with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu picked the previous army commander to guide efforts for the discharge of captives taken by Hamas to Gaza after its October 7 assault, that call made sense to political psychologist Saul Kimhi.
“He’s selecting folks [to join his wartime administration] based mostly on their opinions of him and never on how match they’re for the job,” Kimhi mentioned. Hirsch is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud get together, and — like Israel’s prime minister himself — has confronted expenses of corruption.
Kimhi, who teaches at Tel Aviv College, has studied Netanyahu’s thoughts for nearly 1 / 4 of a century. In 1999, the identical yr that Netanyahu’s first time period as premier would finish, Kimhi’s behavioural evaluation of the chief discovered a regarding sample of behaviour. A few of his conclusions: Netanyahu was narcissistic, entitled and paranoid, and he reacted poorly below stress.
Kimhi revisited Netanyahu as a topic in 2017 however discovered not a lot had modified. As folks age, Kimhi mentioned, their behaviours are likely to turn out to be extra excessive. For Netanyahu, his paranoia and narcissism have grown. He trusts nobody, besides perhaps his fast household, and prioritises his “private future” over all else, Kimhi’s analysis discovered.
Now, as he leads his nation into the warfare on Gaza, the character traits that form Netanyahu’s largest selections may instantly have an effect on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians and the route of the battle. And the indicators thus far, based on Kimhi and different analysts, are worrying.
Indecisive and distrustful
Netanyahu’s behavioural evaluation, based on Kimhi, suggests that he’s indecisive and struggles with troublesome selections. “He isn’t a resilient particular person in any respect,” Kimhi informed Al Jazeera.
Earlier than Netanyahu appointed Hirsch on October 8, the place of hostage negotiator had been left vacant for greater than a yr. Hamas took greater than 200 Israelis captive throughout its raid on southern Israel, and solely a handful have been launched thus far. This, Kimhi mentioned, was an instance of Netanyahu taking “powerful selections on the final minute”.
To make sure, Netanyahu additionally has qualities that seem to have helped him emerge as one of many world’s nice political survivors. A 2021 character study by the Jordanian professor of political science Walid ‘Abd al-Hay, discovered Netanyahu to be extremely charismatic, “with a powerful reminiscence and excessive analytical potential”.
In a profession on the prime of Israeli politics spanning virtually three a long time, these attributes have often labored for him.
Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. He first got here to energy in 1996 and served a three-year time period earlier than he was changed by Ehud Barak. He would return to energy in 2009 after which serve for 13 of the final 14 years.
On a handful of events, Netanyahu’s time seemed to be operating out. In 2015, together with his again to the wall, he used a scaremongering tactic, saying “Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves.” He was re-elected.
After dropping the premiership for a yr, he got here again to energy in 2022, this time, by assembling probably the most far-right authorities in Israel’s historical past.
Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been convicted of incitement to racism, destroying property, and becoming a member of a “terror” organisation when he was 16 years previous. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads the hardline Non secular Zionist Celebration that not solely rejects Palestinian statehood however denies the existence of the Palestinian folks and has condemned LGBTQ activists. Inside and Well being Minister Aryeh Deri is an ultraorthodox rabbi who was sentenced to a few years in jail for taking bribes.
By composing such a cupboard, critics have accused Netanyahu of selecting his personal political survival over Israel’s pursuits. An op-ed within the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has described a few of Netanyahu’s ministers as “neo-Nazi” and “neo-fascist”.
Nonetheless, none of that can matter a lot to Netanyahu. The essential factor for him, based on Kimhi and different analysts who’ve studied the Israeli prime minister, is that he’s in energy, irrespective of the associated fee.
The extremist views in his cupboard could not hassle him as a result of “every little thing goes by way of him with out the ministers figuring out”, Thomas Vesconi, an unbiased researcher and creator of two books on Palestine and Israel, informed Al Jazeera.
Killing the ‘two-state resolution’
Netanyahu’s paranoia and entitlement have arguably formed his view on a Palestinian state as properly. Regardless of publicly saying he’s open to a two-state resolution, he has undermined the method at each flip — together with by insisting {that a} Palestinian state shouldn’t have any army or safety oversight over its territory.
Underneath his reign, settlement growth has flourished and political repression of Palestinians is rampant. Even earlier than October 7, this yr was the deadliest on report for Palestinians within the occupied West Financial institution with greater than 150 folks killed by Israeli forces, 38 of these kids. Greater than 100 Palestinians have been killed within the West Financial institution since October 7. Netanyahu has tried to bypass a Palestinian state by constructing regional agreements with Arab states by way of the Abraham Accords.
The problem of settlements and Netanyahu’s perceived unwillingness to have interaction in good-faith peace talks has grated lots of Netanyahu’s international contemporaries over time. “I can’t bear Netanyahu,” former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was caught telling then-American President Barack Obama on a sizzling mic in 2011. “He’s a liar.”
“You’re fed up with him, however I’ve to cope with him much more usually than you,” Obama had replied.
In accordance with Vesconi, Netanyahu believes that every one of historic Palestine ought to belong to Israel. It’s a perception with roots in Netanyahu’s upbringing.
Father’s son
Benzion Netanyahu, the prime minister’s father, was a proponent of Ze’ev Jabotinsky – a proponent of what’s often called Revisionist Zionism – who believed a Jewish state ought to prolong to either side of the Jordan River. In impact, meaning an Israel that features the nation’s present territory, the West Financial institution, Gaza and half or all of Jordan.
After failing to be awarded a place on the Hebrew College of Jerusalem, Benzion moved his household to the USA and took a place at Cornell College the place he taught Judaic Research. He carried that rejection for the remainder of his life, and together with it, a mistrust of intellectuals and the Israeli Labor Celebration.
Netanyahu held his father, who died in 2012 on the age of 102, in excessive regard. He mentioned his father knew “methods to determine hazard in time” and “draw the mandatory conclusions”.
Netanyahu realized that relationships have been transactional – not altruistic – and “that people reside in fixed Darwinian wrestle for survival”, based on ‘Abd al-Hay’s research.
The Israeli prime minister is at present waging his personal wrestle to outlive in workplace. He as soon as loved assist from deeply non secular conservatives and younger, liberal capitalists working in sectors like tech — what Vesconi calls the 2 bourgeois.
However in current occasions, he has misplaced the liberals whereas the non secular proper has intensified their assist to that of what Kimhi calls “virtually like a cult”. Beginning in January 2023, Israelis flooded the streets to protest in opposition to wide-ranging judicial reform. Netanyahu mentioned the adjustments are to stability an interventionist court docket.
In the meantime, he’s at present below trial for corruption, fraud and breach of belief and public opinion largely blames him for permitting the October 7 assault which noticed Hamas break by way of a border fence, killing about 1,400 folks and taking some 200 folks captive.
What’s subsequent
Underneath fireplace as soon as once more, Netanyahu’s character flaws are as soon as once more exhibiting themselves, Kimhi mentioned.
Analysts imagine Netanyahu is more likely to need to delay the warfare, as few in Israel will name for a change of chief amid a warfare. Greater than 8,500 Palestinians have been killed in current weeks in an assault of unprecedented depth on Gaza. Greater than 3,000 of these are kids. However these figures, very like the hostages, don’t appear to be of concern to Netanyahu.
Placing his survival first aligns with the conclusions of Kimhi and ‘Abd al-Hay’s research. No matter transfer he takes subsequent will likely be with that in thoughts.
“The Israeli public,” Kimhi mentioned, “wants an actual chief that may unite folks.”
Further reporting by Nils Adler
