Meetings between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are more akin to a master class in posturing and duplicity than in diplomacy. Last week’s meetings were no exception.
Both men are master manipulators, products of the current media age. They create illusions that they insist are real. They often repeat an untruth over and over, and with such force, that it becomes real for those who trust them. Those who do not believe in the illusion are threatened, belittled or shunned.
Both leaders have used their guile to achieve personal success in domestic politics. They have developed strong constituent bases that include followers who believe that their leadership must be supported and protected. At the same time, they are polarising figures who have contributed to creating deep fissures within their countries.
But because some of the illusions they project are often based on untruths, there are limits to their successes. In the first place, reality invariably presents a strong check to illusions. And ignoring reality can result in social unrest and political disruption.
For example, Mr Trump promoted his signature budget plan – which he called the “Big Beautiful Bill”– promising that it would be fiscally sound and bring greater prosperity to more Americans. Instead, it appears that it will dramatically increase the nation’s deficit while potentially depriving 17 million Americans of their health care.
For his part, Mr Netanyahu has prolonged his war on Gaza (and Lebanon, Syria and Iran) promising that it would lead to “total victory”, making Israel more respected and secure. Instead, it has led to the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Mr Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel, meanwhile, has seen its international standing diminished because of its war effort.
Truth wins out. And so, we can expect the day to come when many of Mr Trump’s voters lose their healthcare plans and see their rural hospitals forced to close and realise that the illusion of the “Big Beautiful Bill” didn’t include them. Much the same will occur in Israel when Israelis realise that “total victory” is a farce – the conflict with Palestinians will continue as long as they are denied rights – and as tens of thousands of young Israeli soldiers return from having served several tours of duty in Gaza with PTSD, wreaking havoc at home and in their communities.
With this as a backdrop, it was both fascinating and deeply disturbing to see the two leaders at work with, and on, each other last week – a bizarre exercise in flattery. As we say in colloquial English: “They laid it on thick.” Mr Netanyahu, charged with war crimes, gave Mr Trump the letter he sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee nominating him for the peace prize. And Mr Trump returned the compliment calling Mr Netanyahu “the greatest man alive”.
All of this can be dismissed as harmless puffery. But where the efforts of these two leaders become truly dangerous is when they and their acolytes come to believe the deceit and attempt to extend their efforts to supplant reality with illusion through policies that affect others.
From what little is known of what transpired in the meetings between Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu, it’s clear that the ideas driving both are not based on reality.
Mr Trump’s plan was to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza to a location outside of Palestine where housing will be provided so they can live productive lives, making way for Gaza to become a Riviera-style resort. This was criticised early on as being based on ethnic-cleansing and blatant colonialism.
Mr Netanyahu appears to have nothing better to offer than a slight modification of Mr Trump’s idea. He wouldn’t expel all of Gaza’s Palestinians. But he would force as many to leave as possible to other countries that would take them. Those who remain would be “relocated” to what Israel is calling “a humanitarian relocation site” where Palestinians can be provided for and “deradicalised”.
Both plans share three elements. First, to sell their ideas, both Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu clothe them in humanitarian language. Second, no matter how they try to dress them up, both plans are designed and offered without consideration for what Palestinians really want. And finally, therefore, both are delusional and destined not only to fail, but to exacerbate an already volatile situation.
Maybe the biggest illusion projected by both men is the notion that their plans will create the conditions for regional peace. Ignoring the reality that a root cause of tension in the Middle East is the Israeli dispossession of Palestinians, their proposals only add to that dispossession and the resistance it spawns in Gaza (all the while compounding the same dispossession in the West Bank and East Jerusalem).
As history has shown, it is perilous to ignore the humanity of Palestinians. It is also foolish for Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu to assume that their projected illusions will be believed in the Arab world, making possible an “era of peace”. This fantasy only exists in their minds and in the minds of their acolytes.
As Abraham Lincoln, a great Republican president, is believed to have said 160 years ago: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
