Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the 72nd UN General Assembly. Photo: Times of Israel
At the United Nations’ annual general debate in September last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that the organisation had fostered the “epicenter” of “Antisemitism”, particularly among its Middle Eastern members.
On the surface, this aggressive rhetoric seems at odds with the current situation between Israel and its traditional border-sharing adversaries; Palestine’s UN status remains unchanged since 2012, Egyptian-Israeli relations are at “their highest level in history”, Syria is preoccupied with a devastating civil war and Jordan with the ensuing refugee crisis.
Although Lebanon has expressed a desire to increase its military presence on the Israeli border after Netanyahu’s announcement, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the current budget won’t allow it.
However, behind the broad accusations, Netanyahu primarily directed the blame for the perceived rise in Antisemitism towards one state, declaring that a “dark shadow will be cast over the entire Middle East” due to an “Iranian curtain”.
Netanyahu has been emboldened by the Trump administration’s pro-Israel stance towards issues in the Middle East.
The shifting of the U.S embassy to Jerusalem is an obvious example, but President Trump’s commitment to send $75 million of military aid to Israel, in addition to the U.S’ record military outlay to Israel of $38 billion over the next decade, may be what has encouraged Netanyahu the most.
Netanyahu has capitalised on Trump’s support to aggressively pursue a reversal of the nuclear deal the Obama administration signed with Iran.
With the wind of the U.S’ global military and economic influence behind Israel’s sails, Iran’s options of wide-scale retaliation are extremely limited.
Instead, Iran has sought to disrupt Israel’s interests close to its borders through a proxy, by re-establishing financial and military support for Hamas on the Gaza Strip.
However, Israel has seen an opportunity to exploit Iran’s ties with Hamas in order to aggressively suppress opposition in Palestine, evidenced by its response to recent protests in Gaza which left at least 64 Palestinians dead in one day.
Israel knows that while perceptions of Palestine are mixed in the U.S and broader Western world, nearly 80 per cent of U.S voters have an unfavourable view of Iran, so it has framed the protests as part of an Iranian-sponsored terrorism campaign.
With a full-scale war between these two Middle Eastern states unlikely to occur due their considerable military power and influence, more vulnerable areas like Gaza will likely bear the brunt of these tensions.
POLI3022 MME Blog 