Trump refuses to accept that for Netanyahu and Putin forever war is the only option
Trump refuses to accept that for Netanyahu and Putin forever war is the only option
Simon Tisdall
The US president thought he could impose peace through sheer personality, but he didn’t reckon with two leaders with so much to lose
Sun 25 May 2025 01.00 EDT
Last modified on Mon 26 May 2025 05.12 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/25/donald-trump-netanyahu-putin-forever-war#img-1
Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin enjoyed a friendly phone chat earlier this month, marking the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat. The Israeli and Russian leaders have much in common. Both claim to be still heroically battling Nazis, in Gaza and Ukraine respectively. This fiction is used to justify the mass murder of civilians, spiralling troop casualties and huge economic and reputational costs. Maybe it helps them sleep at night. Bibi and Vlad: the world’s most wanted men – and possibly the most despised. Overseeing the random killing, maiming and traumatising of thousands of children is one of many shared behaviours. These two authoritarian “strongmen” have each plunged their countries into global pariahdom and moral purdah. Conflict keeps them in power. They milk patriotic sentiment to cow domestic opponents and vilify foreign critics as antisemites, terrorist sympathisers or Russophobes. They wage war because they fear peace. Both are on the run from international justice, with warrants issued for their arrest for heinous crimes.
Netanyahu and his far-right cronies deny Palestinians the right to an independent state – the exact same right asserted by Israel’s founders. Likewise, Putin rejects the reality of Ukraine as a sovereign country. Both project messianic, expansionist visions – of a “greater Israel” and a revived Soviet imperium. Underpinning such views is a racially supremacist, ultra-nationalist mindset. European leaders predict Putin, if unpunished, will eventually turn his guns on them. Netanyahu has already expanded the Gaza war to Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. Latest US intelligence reports suggest he is preparing to attack Iran, hoping to scupper nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran.
And would-be peacemakers, especially the US president, Donald Trump, fail to grasp another visceral similarity: neither actually wants lasting peace. Forever war is their preferred option, their default setting. They depend for their survival on violence. If the fighting stops, they know they face a potentially ruinous reckoning. What will people say in Rostov-on-Don, Omsk or Nizhny Novgorod when thousands of returning veterans let on what really happened at the front? How long may Putin last when Russia’s elites begin to total up the mind-boggling economic and social cost of his failed gamble? When peace comes, Netanyahu will face elections – and probable defeat. Jail time for alleged bribery and corruption could follow. The international criminal court will demand their surrender. Both could be down and out. That’s why they fear peace. And that’s why relentless international insistence on ending the wars, backed by increased military and economic aid for Ukraine and tougher sanctions and diplomatic pressure on Israel’s government, is the way to unseat two of the foremost villains of the age. No wonder this pair, whose sometimes rocky relationship goes back two decades, exchanged “warm greetings” on the phone. They need each other now.
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Like a quack doctor misdiagnosing problems, Trump makes matters worse. Each day, Netanyahu and Putin get away with murder due in large measure to their clueless, narcissistic White House bro. Each day, more children’s lives are devastated. Trump should stop grandstanding and delegate Gaza and Ukraine peacemaking to experienced US career diplomats, UN envoys, Arab and European mediators, intelligence chiefs and military experts. In short, he should leave it to people who know what they’re doing. As for Netanyahu and Putin, he should wash his hands of both.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/25/donald-trump-netanyahu-putin-forever-war
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With an eye on land in Gaza.
