Netanyahu needs a war because he’s desperate, and because a war might answer two of his more immediate needs: First, an overarching, delaying-action distraction, and second, in the event a war should succeed even as his career fades, the single thing the prime minister wants the most in this life: a legacy.
He’s desperate now because he’s losing ground fast in the latest opinion polls. He’s desperate because after all these many years in power, obsessed by his place in history and his own wishlist comparisons with Winston Churchill, Netanyahu still has no legacy beside the number of all these many years in power. [...]
He’s desperate because police detectives and investigative journalists are closing in on him. He pretends that the allegations center on innocent favors traded for innocently modest luxuries. But the security-minded public knows only too well that Netanyahu may be involved in malfeasance in securing the purchase of several advanced German-built submarines – potentially Israel’s most potent strategic weapon in its continuing confrontation of Mutually Threatened Destruction with Iran. [...]
Citing Iran’s mounting presence in Syria, Netanyahu’s defense minister has demanded that the military budget be hiked by well over a billion dollars. The demand is particularly extraordinary in view of the fact that the army’s chief of staff reportedly sees no need for the increase. [...]
In the past, hardline Israeli leaders under the threat of police probes have opted for a dramatic shift to the left, hoping to ride a peace push to save their premiership. But Netanyahu has worked so long and so well to block any meaningful avenue toward peace that he has himself choked off much of his own room to maneuver.
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