I actually haven’t seen Netanyahu discussed much, but I do know Trump is working directly with him on the joint strikes in Iran.
I listen to a podcast called “Behind the Bastards” (HIGHLY recommend!!!) and gauge how evil a person is based on if they’ve done an episode on them. BTB has indeed done a two-part episode on the Netanyahu family. Not a good sign!
Episode 1: Part One: What the Netanyahu Family Did To Palestine | BEHIND THE BASTARDS
Episode 2: Part Two: What the Netanyahu Family Did To Palestine | BEHIND THE BASTARDS
In this post, I want to look closely at who Trump is hitching our wagon to. The Ayatollah is unquestionably evil. How much less evil is Netanyahu?
The Life and Crimes of Benjamin Netanyahu
Like with previously covered individuals, I’ll use Britannica as the base bio source.
Quote, “In 1963 Netanyahu, the son of the historian Benzion Netanyahu, moved with his family to Philadelphia in the United States. After enlisting in the Israeli military in 1967, he became a soldier in the elite special operations unit Sayeret Matkal and was on the team that rescued a hijacked jet plane at the Tel Aviv airport in 1972. He later studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.B.A., 1976), taking time out to fight in the Yom Kippur War in Israel in 1973. After his brother Jonathan died while leading the successful Entebbe raid in 1976, Benjamin founded the Jonathan Institute, which sponsored conferences on terrorism“.
That all sounds pretty good. He did some good stuff as a young man!
The start of his political career was as an ambassador. “Netanyahu held several ambassadorship positions before being elected to the Knesset (Israeli parliament) as a Likud member in 1988. He served as deputy minister of foreign affairs (1988–91) and then as a deputy minister in Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s coalition cabinet (1991–92). In 1993 he easily won election as the leader of the Likud party, succeeding Shamir in that post. Netanyahu became noted for his opposition to the 1993 Israel-PLO peace accords and the resulting Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank and Gaza Strip“.
Let me first explain his terms/stints in office. He was elected first in 1996, where has sat until 1999. He was elected again in 2009, where he has stayed since. However, since different government systems have existed, he has had four technical terms within that time period. Sound confusing? That’s because it is!
His first term as Prime Minister started in 1996 and lasted until 1999. He won against Prime Minister Shimon Peres by a margin of 1%. During his first term, relations with Syria deteriorated, he pissed off the Palestinians a bunch of times by trying to reduce land being given to them, opening religious sites, and trying to settle land claimed by the Palestinians. The Knesset dissolved the government in 1998, and new elections in ’99 failed to re-elect Netanyahu.
Netanyahu was elected again to the Prime Minister spot in 1999, lasting until present day. During the earlier parts of this stint, Netanyahu was harsh on criticizing the Obama administration’s attempts to work out a nuclear deal with Iran. This term can broadly be generalized as a stalled peace process with Palestine and an expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank area. In 2012, Palestine was granted a non-member observer status in the UN. He attempted to make Israel a Jewish state and failed. He also, during the first Trump term, withdrew Israel from the JCPOA deal (aka the Iran Nuclear Deal).
Recently, Netanyahu has been in trouble with the law for several reasons. Here’s a list:
- November 21, 2019:
- Case 1000: Netanyahu allegedly took $200,000 worth of gifts from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian Billionaire James Packer. In return, Milchan received a U.S. Visa and Netanyahu promoted a tax exemption law that would benefit Israelis abroad.
- Case 2000: This case involves alleged negotiations between Netanyahu and Arnon Mozes, the controlling shareholder of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. Mozes allegedly offered Netanyahu favorable media coverage in exchange for legislation to slow the growth of rival newspaper Israel Hayom.
- Case 4000: This case alleges Netanyahu granted regulatory favors to Israeli telecommunications company Bezeq in return for positive coverage of him and his wife on a news website controlled by its former chairman, Shaul Elovitch.
- ICC Arrest Warrant, November 2024: The ICC called for Netanyahu’s arrest, with these charges: “Allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024“.
The former sounds like something Trump would do any given Tuesday. The latter, though?
Netanyahu and a Genocide
The accusations of a war crime should not be taken lightly. Of course, anyone can claim anything, so I wanted to find out what evidence there was for Netanyahu’s involvement in the crimes that were alleged.
I found a report entitled “Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide“, written by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council and released on September 16th, 2025.
It’s a long-ass report, but at the risk of paraphrasing and messing it up, here’s the entirety of the conclusion:
“The Commission’s analysis in this report relates solely to the determination of genocide under the Genocide Convention as it relates to the responsibility of the State of Israel both for the failure to prevent genocide, for committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023 and for the failure to punish genocide. The Commission also notes that, while its analysis is limited to the Palestinians specifically in Gaza during the period since 7 October 2023, it nevertheless raises the serious concern that the specific intent to destroy the Palestinians as a whole has extended to the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, that is, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, based on Israeli authorities’ and Israeli security forces’ actions therein, and to the period before 7 October 2023. The events in Gaza since 7 October 2023 have not occurred in isolation, as the Commission has noted. They were preceded by decades of unlawful occupation and repression under an ideology requiring the removal of the Palestinian population from their lands and its replacement.
The Commission concludes on reasonable grounds that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit the following actus reus of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, namely (i) killing members of the group; (ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (iii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (iv) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
On incitement to genocide, the Commission concludes that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, have incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action against them to punish this incitement. The Commission has not fully assessed statements by other Israeli political and military leaders, including Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister for Finance Bezalel Smotrich, and considers that they too should be assessed to determine whether they constitute incitement to commit genocide.
On the mens rea of genocide, the Commission concludes that statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent. In addition, the Commission concludes that the pattern of conduct is circumstantial evidence of genocidal intent and that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be drawn from the totality of the evidence. Thus, the Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have had and continue to have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Commission concludes that the State of Israel bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.“
Hooooooly shit. So, uh, that’s not looking so good.
So, is Netanyahu Evil?
The best summary I could find of my feelings on Netanyahu are found in an Aljazeera article. The author, a first-generation Palestinian American law student named Ahmad Ibsais, writes:
“Sure, Netanyahu is evil. Sure, he committed countless crimes against Palestinians and against humanity, throughout his long career. Sure, he is continuing to fuel the carnage in Gaza today in part for his own political survival. And he should be held accountable for everything he has said and done that caused harm and pain to my people. But the racism, extremism and genocidal intent that is on display in Gaza and across the occupied Palestinian territory today cannot and should not be blamed on Netanyahu alone.
Blaming Israel’s blatant human rights abuses, disregard for international law, and open celebration of war crimes on Netanyahu alone is nothing but a coping mechanism for liberals like Sanders and Warren.
By blaming Netanyahu for the suffering and oppression of the Palestinian people, past and present, they keep alive the lie that Israel was built on progressive ideals, rather than ethnic cleansing”.
In short, Netanyahu is part of the problem. The problem, though, is much bigger and has gone on much longer than Netanyahu’s lifetime. Is he a great person to hitch the U.S. to? Absolutely not. Regardless of his role in the genocide, there was a genocide, and he was in charge while it happened. Ordering a murder is just as much as a crime as committing one. Partnering with a goddamn war criminal on a war is probably NOT going to be a good look for the U.S. in the end. See my previous posts about how I feel about the Iran War – that is was completely avoidable or was at the very least a war of choice.
Thanks for reading!