Stop the Idiocracy: Benjamin Netanyahu

Showing posts with label Benjamin Netanyahu. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

The fractured covenant

image generated via ChatGPT

Forty per cent of Israelis polled believe there was ‘a betrayal from within’ during the 7 October 2023 attacks. {Jerusalem Post 4 September}

https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/article-907575

FTA: Almost half of Israelis, particularly those aligned with parties that form Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, believe that there was a "betrayal from within" conspiracy around the morning of October 7, 2023, a poll published by Maariv on Friday found.

Out of the respondents, a slight plurality, at 44%, believed that there was no "betrayal from within," while 40% believed such an event did occur, and 16% said they were unsure.

The poll also broke down these results by political affiliation, with 61% of coalition voters believing there was an "betrayal from within," while 64% of opposition voters believed there was no such event.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Saturday, June 20, 2026

Strait of Hormuz: where the world holds its breath

A dramatic digital illustration of a young woman swimming through the waters of the Strait of Hormuz at sunset. Seen from a low, water-level perspective, she stretcheth one arm forward while glancing back over her shoulder, her long dark hair trailing behind across the sea. Turquoise water is lit by warm golden light; waves catch reflections from the setting sun. In the background, several large oil tankers and cargo vessels transit the narrow waterway between rocky coastlines. Naval warships flank the shipping lane, including a vessel flying the Iranian flag—geopolitical tension and maritime uncertainty. The glowing sky holdeth dramatic clouds and orange sunlight, contrasting with darker blue water. Human vulnerability, international commerce, military presence, and natural beauty—risk, endurance, global trade, and a critical maritime chokepoint.

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And the Strait of Hormuz is closed yet again: Iran shuts the vital waterway after Israel strikes Lebanon. {NBC News 20 June}

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/israel-continues-lebanon-strikes-fresh-ceasefire-rcna350952

No lasting ‘peace’ is forthcoming. None — not with the likes of Trump, Netanyahu, and the Islamist regime of Iran as the principal parties to the conflict.

And even after the former two are gone (which is not going to be for a long while, at least in Trump's case, and Bibi hath proven himself Teflon over and over), the latter shall very likely remain in perpetuity. Certain portions of the Iranian people have risen up their rulers, and have been thoroughly decimated in the process. Israel and Iran will be locked in conflict for generations, while the former United States will be left with no choice but to go home with its tail between its legs. For, we simply cannot afford this war, on any level. Dare I say, we cannot afford Donald J. Trump anymore, either. The most inept buffoon on the bloody planet, and may literally be the death of us all.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

An eternal night of sorrows

A dramatic digital illustration of a distressed young woman standing against a rain-darkened city street at dusk. She is wrapt in an Israeli flag, clutching the fabric tightly as she leaneth against a stone wall. Her long, dark, curly hair is damp and dishevelled, framing a tear-streaked face with reddened eyes and flushed cheeks—exhaustion, fear, sorrow. The blue-and-white flag with the Star of David covereth her like a symbolic shield. Behind, traffic lights and headlights reflect on wet pavement; illuminated skyscrapers rise into a sunset sky of orange, pink, and purple. Warm city lights contrast with her distress. Realistic urban detail and strong symbolism evoke grief, identity, resilience, displacement, and endurance in the face of hardship.

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In one of the most Jewish cities on earth, NYC mayor says the pro-Israel lobbying AIPAC are ‘monsters’. {Jerusalem Post 19 June}

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-899945#google_vignette

Just a bit unhinged, perhaps? And, unlike Trump, this man is only in his thirties, so we do not have old age to account for such remarks. It is rather sad that words such as these are barely notable when the POTUS blurts out offensive statements as a matter of course.

The Great Zohran is also a Muslim, and if one does not believe such influences his views on Jewish people, then one is hopelessly naïve.

The coarsening of American culture is inevitable when leaders fail to act like leaders. Furthermore, I believe we can have concerns about how the Israeli government and military under Netanyahu are conducting operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and elsewhere without resorting to rhetoric that is both inflammatory and antisemitic.

And Israel is hardly the only country on earth that hath lobbying organisations or diplomatic missions in the former United States. There is nothing inherently shady or improper about a nation representing its interests on the world stage.

Mamdani is the flip side of the same coin as Trump: rhetorical flamethrowers and populist agents of chaos posing as leaders who, in the end, achieve nothing beyond stirring division and leaving their realms poorer and weaker than before.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Hope across the ruins?

A symbolic fantasy scene of two allegorical women standing on opposite sides of a deep chasm amid a devastated city. The woman on the left weareth flowing garments in Iran’s colours—green and red billowing; the woman on the right is draped in white and blue robes bearing the Star of David. Both extend a hand toward one another across the divide, fingertips nearly touching but not quite meeting. Above, storm clouds part to reveal golden sunlight streaming through the centre, illuminating the gap. Below, shattered ruins stretch toward a distant coastline. White doves with olive branches stand among broken stonework—peace and reconciliation. Conflict, separation, hope, diplomacy, and the possibility of understanding despite profound division.

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The Islamic Republic demands Israel withdraw from Lebanon for a tentative peace deal to take effect. {AP 16 June}

https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-war-israel-lebanon-oil-june-16-2026-d79458506c46e3f4a78aef0f9d8b9250

The signing ceremony for this ‘peace deal’ is scheduled for Friday in Switzerland. At this hour, I do not believe it is going to happen, as Netanyahu is adamant that the Israelis are not going to withdraw from Lebanon, to say nothing of the schism that hath developed between him and Trump (and, therefore, between America and Israel).

I shall not be surprised if this war is still ongoing a year from now. Or two.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Saturday, February 28, 2026

“Trump has tipped the Middle East into a massive war that could last weeks” — or months, or years

Reuters

{Sky News 28 February} US and Israel attack the Iranian capital with the goal of regime change.

The nefarious Iranian regime hath long courted precisely this sort of escalation; yet the orange-stained regime in Washington is scarcely less reckless, and no less morally compromised. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion — more to the point, certainty — that these strikes are being exploited as a convenient diversion for Donald Trump: a spectacle designed to distract the #Murican masses from the fact they are being ruled by a paedophile. And, to that end, it will work: in a country so coarsened and credulous, any resistance in earnest to the laundering of what is beyond grotesque and indefensible is practically non-existent.

Israel’s position is more complex, of course. Its security concerns regarding Iran are real and severe, and long-standing. Twenty years ago, we were talking about the likelihood of a bloody conflict. Even so, it is entirely plausible that Bibi Netanyahu, too, may welcome a crisis that shifts the focus from his internal political troubles, and his reliably deferential posture towards Trump hath been dispiriting to anyone who supports both Israel and democratic, egalitarian governance in this world. Going along with Trump on this is a high-stakes gamble; as I write, reports are emerging that Tehran hath launched retaliatory strikes on Tel Aviv. However one parses it, the outlook is bleak — extremely bleak. And, remember, the Iranian bear nukes.

Monday, October 13, 2025

A hollow ‘peace deal’ that leaves Israel no more secure: Netanyahu's surrender

$An illustration in the retro-realist idiom, charged with political and emotional disquiet. In the foreground, a young Israeli woman stands upon a stone terrace overlooking Jerusalem, her hands clasped in anxious prayer before her chest, the Star of David pendant glinting against her white blouse. Tears stream down her cheeks, their path catching the golden dusk light that softens yet cannot redeem the anguish in her expression. Behind her, the city unfolds in ochre tones, rooftops punctuated by fluttering Israeli flags. Looming above the skyline, a vast electronic billboard depicts Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump clasping hands, both smiling broadly — a tableau of power and performance that contrasts cruelly with the woman’s visible distress. The scene captures the fracture between public triumphalism and private despair: an elegy for a people caught between faith and betrayal, patriotism and loss.$

image generated by Google Gemini

{The Independent 13 October} ‘Trump urges Israel to embrace ‘peace and prosperity’ as he takes victory lap in Knesset speech’

Mr Netanyahu, in the immediate aftermath of the 7 October 2023 terrorist assault upon Israel, rightfully declared that Hamas would be wiped from the face of the earth. Yet two years later, we find him presiding—almost proudly—over a so-called peace accord that permits Hamas to continue to exist, the Islamist front’s infrastructure battered but intact. And who should stride into the frame but Donald Trump, the self-anointed peacemaker, basking in acclaim as he waltzes through Jerusalem like some conquering hero—his admirers, including Mr Netanyahu, too besotted to notice the irony.

Remember, this is the same regime in Washington that has just green-lit the establishment of a Qatari air base on American soil—Qatar, that convenient ‘ally’ whose coffers have long funnelled sustenance and sanctuary to Hamas itself. Yet the #MAGA faithful, ever impervious to contradiction, trumpet this as proof of Trump’s diplomatic genius, as though the mere appearance of resolution were peace itself. And an arrangement, I do suspect, will be fortunate to survive the week.

Meanwhile, Israel remains no safer, the people of Gaza no less oppressed, and Hamas no less murderous. The entire episode reeks of cynical theatre—ideology hollowed out and replaced by vanity, opportunism, and exhaustion. If betrayal can wear a smile, Mr Netanyahu’s is it. Once I admired him; now I see only a man trading his country’s soul, and its security, for the illusion of legacy. —Arthur Newhook, 13 October 2025.