Putin and Netanyahu: Why bad things happen to bad leaders

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I find it shocking how much the Russian president has in common these days. Vladimir Putin and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

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Both see themselves as great strategic chess players in a world where, they think, only everyone else knows play checkers.

Yet both completely misunderstood the world in which they operated.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Prosecutor General's Council in Moscow, Russia on Wednesday, March 15, 2023. (Pavel Bednyakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Prosecutor General’s Council in Moscow, Russia on Wednesday, March 15, 2023. (Pavel Bednyakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

In fact, they interpret it so badly that it seems as though each of them is not playing chess or checkers, but playing. Russian rouletteThey alone.

Russian Roulette is not meant to be played alone, but both are.

Putin thought he could capture Kiev in a matter of days and then – at very little cost – use Russia’s expansion into Ukraine to halt the expansion of the European Union and NATO.

A protester walks with an Israeli flag and a sign reading "Don

A protester walks with an Israeli flag and a sign reading “Don’t come back!” in English, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is heading to Germany on an official visit, during a protest against the controversial judicial reform bill in front of Israel’s Ben Gurion airport terminal March 15, 2023. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP)

He might have been close to it were it not for the fact that his isolation and self-delusion led him to go wrong with his own army, with the Ukrainian military, with NATO allies, with the president Joe Bidenwith the Ukrainian people, with Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany and the European Union.

In the process, he turned Russia into a Chinese energy colony and in a beggar from the drones of Iran.

For someone who has been at the top of the Kremlin since 1999, yes make many mistakes

Netanyahu and his coalition thought they could pull off a quick judicial coup, disguised as legal “reform”.which would allow them to leverage the narrowest of electoral victories – some 30,000 votes out of some 4.7 million – to allow Netanyahu and company to govern without having to worry about the only source of restraint for politicians in the Israeli system:

its independent judiciary and its Supreme Court.

Interestingly, at Netanyahu’s first formal cabinet meeting in December, he listed his government’s four priorities:

blockade Iran, restore personal security for all Israelis, address the cost of living and housing shortages, and widen the circle of peace with surrounding Arab states.

He didn’t mention the judicial reorganisationapparently hoping to go unnoticed by the public.

Mistake.

The vast majority of the Israeli population understood this right away and responded with the greater public reaction against a legislative proposal in the history of the country.

The opposition is now spreading throughout Israeli society and beyond:

Netanyahu was wrong about his military, he was wrong about his tech startup community, he was wrong about Biden and, according to polls, he was wrong about the majority of Israeli voters.

He was also wrong on the basis of his own party:

Although there have been massive and wide-ranging protests against his judicial reform every week, there has not been a single large-scale popular demonstration in support of him.

Netanyahu has even got some of his most ardent conservative Jewish American supporters wrong.

Miriam Adelson, writing in Israel Hayom, the right-wing Israeli newspaper founded by her late husband, billionaire Sheldon, decried how the prime minister was trying to “rush” such a significant change.

It raises “doubts about the underlying goals and concerns that this is a hasty, rash and irresponsible move,” he wrote, adding:

“THE bad reasons They never bring good results.”

For someone who holds the position of President of the Council for the sixth timeeverything is wrong.

What’s next?

You guessed it: both Netanyahu and Putin blame external agitators and foreign funding for their problems.

It is taken from the dictator’s manual. While Putin regularly blames the United States and NATO for his military failures in Ukraine, The Times of Israel reported over the weekend that Netanyahu and his family have begun insinuating that the State Department is the hidden hand funding the huge protests.

The newspaper quoted a “senior government official” during Netanyahu’s recent trip to Rome – a source routinely used by the prime minister to hide his identity – as saying:

“There is an organized center from which all the protesters come out in an orderly manner.

Who finances the transport, the flags, the stages?

It’s clear to us.”

The newspaper added: “Another member of the prime minister’s entourage confirmed that the senior official was referring to the United States.”

How is it possible that two leaders are wrong about so many things, despite having been in power for so many years? The question answers itself:

I have been in power for many years.

Each has earned enemies and alleged clues corruption that make them feel it’s rule or die.

In Netanyahu’s case, that would mean figuratively dying:

He is currently on trial for multiple allegations of corruption and, if found guilty, could face prison sentences and the end of his political life.

In Putin’s case, it could mean literally dying, at the hands of his enemies.

Netanyahu’s fear of ruling or dying has led him to form a coalition with two ex-convicts and a gallery of Jewish supremacists.

Many have been rejected by previous prime ministers – indeed, before by Netanyahu himself – but inside his despair he had to associate with them today because he was abandoned by many honest Likud members.

Putin, unfortunately, is way above coalition building and power sharing.

That was Putin 1.0 in the early 2000s. Putin 2.0, after 24 years in power, knows that a leader like him – who stole all the money he has – could never trust a successor to allow him to retire peacefully to his mansion from a billion dollars on the Black Sea.

(His official salary is 140,000 dollars a year.)

He knows that to live, or at least live freely, he must remain president for life.

That’s why Putin’s two biggest innovations were poison-tipped underwear and poison-tipped umbrellas to get rid of perceived enemies.

What is more interesting to me is how Netanyahu and Putin each misunderstand their military.

Putin has increasingly had to rely on convicts and mercenaries to carry the brunt of his war in Ukraine, while tens of thousands of men Russians fled abroad to escape conscription.

In Israel, air force pilots, army medics and cyberwarriors have warned that the Israel Defense Forces won’t just hail an Israeli dictator.

Among them are three senior retired officers, led by Joab Rosenberg, former deputy chief intelligence analyst for the IDF, who flew to Washington this week to try to get American help to stop the coup in slow motion by Netanyahu.

As Moshe Ya’alon, Netanyahu’s former defense minister and former army chief of staff, said recently during a rally in Tel Aviv:

“From my personal experience as a soldier and commander, if, God forbid, Israel were to become a dictatorship, we would not have enough soldiers willing to sacrifice their lives to defend the country, and that would pose an existential threat to the State of Israel. Enough. look at the poor performance of Putin’s armed forces, devoid of spirit and faith in their dictator and his ways”, to see what does dictatorship do to an army.

Finally, both Putin and Netanyahu have completely underestimated the speed with which the electronic flock of global investors would be turned away from their countries after their reckless behaviour.

According to the fDi Markets database of Financial Timesonly 13 foreign direct investment projects were registered in Russia last year, “the lowest level since registrations began in 2003”.

Assaf Rappaport, co-founder of one of Israel’s top startups, the $10 billion cloud security company Wiz, told me over breakfast in Washington that Israel’s tech community “could survive the Palestinian riots, suicide bombings and Hamas missiles against Tel Aviv”.

But economically, it “cannot survive” a threat to Israel’s independent judiciary. His foreign investors just told him not to deposit his latest round of financing, $300 million, in Israel.

In the future, he added, more and more Israeli startups will register as companies.and Delawarenot Israelis.

Another similarity that leads to a huge difference.

Both Putin and Netanyahu surrounded themselves with “yes-men”“, party supporters and total sepoys:

no one with an independent political position or an ethical backbone who can stand up and say:

“What are you doing? Stop it. This is wrong. Cut your losses.”

But that brings us to the one major difference between them.

The world is divided into more than 24 time zones.

Russia alone covers 11.

Israel fits into one.

Putin can afford a long war of attrition in Ukraine, where he must never admit he was wrong.

You have huge margins for your mistakes.

Israel No.

Wise Israeli leaders have always understood that they must carefully protect their assets and build ties with their allies, not only through shared interests, but also through shared values.

Yet Netanyahu’s extremist coalition is now militarily confronting the Palestinians and Iran while ignoring the wishes and values ​​of its most important ally, the US government; from its largest diaspora community, American Jews; and its most important source of economic growth, foreign investors.

And it does all this by dividing the Israeli people on the brink of civil war.

It’s crazy.

In other words:

Russia can survive a leader playing Russian roulette. Israel may not.

c.2023 The New York Times Society

Source: Clarin

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