Mr. In-security -The Weakening of Israel

Despite his self-anointed nickname, Benjamin Netanyahu has never substantiated his claim to be “Mr. Security” beyond his own books and speeches. He built a house of cards that came crashing down on October 7, 2023—and has continued to crumble every day since.

The military response that followed—the near-total destruction of Gaza and massive bombings in Lebanon—served not one purpose, but three. First, October 7 was not only a shock to Israel but a seismic jolt to the entire Middle East. It exposed the perceived Israeli superpower as vulnerable, not to a standing army, but to a non-state terrorist group. Israel needed to display overwhelming military force to reestablish its deterrent credibility. Second, it needed to demonstrate to Hezbollah what would befall Lebanon should they join the fray—which they eventually did. Third, and most cynically, the war served Netanyahu’s personal political survival: it allowed him to rewrite the narrative, shifting from the prime minister who abandoned the southern border and enabled the attack to the wartime leader “taking control back.”

Yet after more than 1,000 days of continuous warfare, we have seen the real Benjamin Netanyahu: nothing more than a paper tiger. Hamas still governs Gaza, the IDF remains bogged down in active combat, and Israeli forces are still vulnerable to attacks. In the north, the home front has become a war front, with daily rocket and drone barrages. And on the Iranian front—a war Netanyahu instigated—Israel is in a markedly worse strategic position than before the conflict began.

Where is the “total victory” Netanyahu repeatedly promised? It has not materialized—not even a partial one. What we have witnessed instead is total failure.

Equally damaging has been Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s most vital alliance. He has repeatedly proclaimed Donald Trump the best US president Israel could ever have, and convinced a large segment of the Israeli public that Trump’s support exceeds that of any predecessor. This was not merely deceptive—it was a strategic catastrophe. Netanyahu has single-handedly transformed the previously unquestioned, bipartisan US support for Israel into a fragile, partisan liability. Among Democrats, openly anti-Israel candidates and sitting representatives now compete to demonstrate their hostility. Among Republicans, blind support is no longer guaranteed. Many Americans—including politicians—believe, with good reason, that Netanyahu dragged Trump into a war with Iran that had no strategy, no clear objectives, no exit plan, and no “day-after” blueprint.

For the first time in Israel’s history, a majority of the American public expresses more sympathy for the Palestinians—and even for Hamas—than for Israel.

The illusion of a Netanyahu-Trump “bromance” has also shattered. Trump is notorious for nursing lifelong grudges, and he maintains ties with those he resents only as long as they serve his interests. The moment they cease to be useful, they are discarded. Netanyahu has accumulated multiple grievances in Trump’s ledger:

1. He convinced Trump to withdraw from Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, promising that the Iranians would come crawling back for a better agreement—a promise that never materialized.
2. Netanyahu called Joe Biden to congratulate him on his election victory, a slight Trump has not forgiven.
3. The failed attack on Hamas leadership in Doha—despite Trump’s public denials, he was fully aware of the operation. Given that the US operates its largest Middle East military base in Qatar, Israeli missiles could not have entered Qatari airspace without American approval. Trump, loathing public association with failure, distanced himself. Had it succeeded, he would have claimed full partnership. Instead, he was effectively blackmailed into granting Qatar a bilateral defense agreement—a status previously reserved for NATO members—to protect his personal and business interests. The entire Arab world understood that Trump had greenlit the violation of Qatari sovereignty and then compensated Doha to keep the matter quiet.
4. Netanyahu claimed in the White House Situation Room that Israel could topple the Iranian regime within three weeks. Only Trump bought into this fantasy; his advisors and military brass did not.
5. The war with Iran has dragged on far longer than Netanyahu promised, inflicting significant political damage on Trump, driving up gas prices and inflation, and jeopardizing Republican prospects in the midterm elections.

These grudges are already surfacing. Trump has reportedly called Netanyahu “fucking crazy” in volatile phone calls and warned that Netanyahu would be in prison if not for him.

The cumulative damage to the US-Israel relationship may be irreversible. Netanyahu has taken every tactical military success and transformed it into a political and diplomatic failure—each one individually weakening the state and endangering both Israeli citizens and diaspora Jews. Never before have Israeli government actions so directly and immediately endangered Jewish communities worldwide. Yet Netanyahu has done virtually nothing to counter the global tsunami of pro-Hamas propaganda, leaving every Israeli, every Jew, and every Jewish institution as a target.

As if these wounds were not enough, Netanyahu has done what no Israeli leader has done before: he has outsourced Israel’s security to the most unstable and unpredictable president in American history—a man whose interests shift with the wind and are always, first and foremost, about himself. Netanyahu has taken critical security decisions out of Israeli hands and rendered the country completely subservient to his so-called BFF.

The result of this relentless parade of political and diplomatic failures—or more accurately, the complete absence of strategic statecraft—is that the war with Iran has achieved nothing positive for Israel or the US. No regime change, except the replacement of previous leaders with even more extreme figures. No rollback of the nuclear program or removal of enriched uranium. No meaningful address of Iran’s ballistic missile program or its continued arming of proxies. Worst of all, Israel is not even a party to the negotiations; all information about the emerging agreement comes through leaks or statements from Iran or the US.

Netanyahu promised security. He has delivered isolation, dependency, and enduring vulnerability. The man who called himself Mr. Security has become, in truth, Mr. In-security.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s self-styled persona as “Mr. Security” is a dangerous illusion that has culminated in Israel’s most profound strategic crisis since its founding. Netanyahu’s post-October 7 military campaigns were driven as much by political self-preservation as by national defense, and that his governance has produced a trifecta of failure: military stalemate, diplomatic isolation, and a fractured relationship with the United States. By alienating bipartisan American support, entangling Israel in an unplanned war with Iran, and exposing diaspora Jewry to unprecedented hostility, Netanyahu has transformed Israel from a regional superpower into a vulnerable state dependent on the whims of an erratic US president. Far from securing Israel, Netanyahu has systematically weakened it—turning tactical military operations into strategic political defeats.