Understanding the leadership style of Benjamin Netanyahu

By M.H.M. Faizer

Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats Party, told Israel's public broadcaster and was quoted by Haretz as saying that "Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa once was, if it does not return to acting like a sane country."

Golan said, "A sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population." He also criticised the government's conduct, saying it is "full of vengeful, unintelligent, and immoral individuals who lack the ability to run a country in a time of emergency—people who have nothing whatsoever to do with Judaism."

Golan’s opinion is fast becoming a chorus in Israel, going by the recent resentment by the vast number of Israeli people who stage regular protests to exert strong pressure on Netanyahu on a continuous and consistent basis. On previous occasions, the focus of the protests were on the release of hostages in Hamas custody. However, the recent protests are against Netanyahu and are beginning to increase. An estimated of 300,000 Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities last Sunday (17th August) clearly demonstrating that either Netanyahu must resign or publicly announce that he is abandoning his insane goal of conquering the entirety of Gaza. They also demanded that he immediately agree to meet with Hamas for negotiation. On the 18th of this month Hamas has agreed to a new ceasefire proposal on Gaza presented by Egypt and Qatar.

His all-out war to capture Gaza demonstrates the megalomaniac state of mind of Netanyahu. The IDF team, including its head, is not in favour of his plant to prolong the war. The experienced IDF team knows for sure that such a war will end up in a stalemate with neither Israel nor Hamas achieving their objectives. On the other hand, Hamas has nothing to lose, but Israel has everything to lose. Netanyahu forgets to address the colossal losses that Israel will incur, especially the depletion of the current strength of Israel's military might. He also discounts the fact that his stubbornness will further damage the already fast-deteriorating Israeli economy. Moreover, he must take cognisance of the increased burden of the reconstruction of the physical infrastructure that remains destroyed. This burden will go beyond repair if the new offensive begins to capture all of Gaza. As of today, Israel will take years and years to rebuild all that was destroyed during the recent war with Iran.

Has he lost his mind? Or his deep-rooted totalitarian-cum-authoritarian attitude makes him practise gangsterism, overruling the majority opinions and criticisms of the whole world. Also, he demonstrates a total disregard for his own international supporters, such as the UK and France.

Or is he suffering from narcissism?

A textbook explanation of narcissism is that it is a personality disorder characterised by an inflated sense of self-importance, a deep need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for others. People with narcissistic tendencies often:

1. Have an exaggerated sense of achievement and abilities.

2. Expect special treatment and automatic compliance.

3. Are preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, and recognition.

4. Believe they're superior to others.

5. Take advantage of others for personal gain.

6. Lack empathy and struggle to understand others' feelings.

7. Are envious or believe others are envious of them.

8. Have difficulty handling criticism or feedback.

A narcissist certainly causes severe distress and impairment in others, but his narcissism doesn’t seem to affect him that way. They tend to become more impulsive, arrogant, disorganised, chaotic, and self-serving.

His leadership is marked by controversies. Normally leadership styles of political leaders are multifaceted in terms of circumstances and opportunities. Even an authoritarian leader sometimes acts as a ‘benevolent authoritarian’ in a crisis situation of helping a neighbouring population facing, say, a famine catastrophe. Instead of helping a famine, Netanyahu has created an artificial, man-made famine for the innocent Gazans. He was determined not to allow any food, water and other essentials to reach the starving Gazans. There are hundreds of aid trucks waiting to reach Gaza, and there are many countries wanting to send more and more. His silly argument is that these foods will go to feed the Hamas. In any case, he has the guts to deny that there exists a famine in Gaza.

They say leaders are born and not made. Some leaders are born to become ‘emotional’ leaders and believe in empowerment and become compassionate. Some leaders are born to become ‘ruthless and hard-hearted’ and believe in revenge, resentment and punishment. They are born with the genes of cruelty in them.

Many political leaders are clever at camouflaging their styles of leadership. They are clever at projecting an image of compassion that hides their true personality of being a brute. Surprisingly some of them survive for quite a long time. These are clever masters of split personality.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Netanyahu does not suffer from such camouflage. His leadership personality is straight totalitarian, and he doesn’t hide this. Totalitarianism as a political system will not last long as a form of government in a global environment filled with democracy. Such a government will be isolated sooner or later.

This process of isolation has begun for Israel. It’s a sorry state of affairs for Israel. All that Israelis need to do is to install a leadership that is willing to coexist with the rest of the world while maintaining its own dignity. The first thing the new leadership must do is to announce its belief in a two-state solution. This is a practical solution, and more than three-quarters of the world are looking forward to this.

(The writer is the former Deputy Director General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka.)