Following Israel’s strikes on Damascus, Axios quoted a Trump White House official as saying, “Bibi acted like a madman. He bombs everything all the time”. However, while some on the MAGA or ‘America First’ right might celebrate this as a sign that Trump might further pressure Israel into ending its, as Pope Leo XIV recently put it, ‘barbarity’, this analysis of Netanyahu as a ‘madman’ is misguided at best and deliberate obfuscation at worst.
Netanyahu is not a madman. Instead, he is a calculating sociopath who readily disregards human life if it means political survival and furthering his violent and expansionist policies throughout the Middle East.
This analysis of foreign leaders as ‘madmen’ is common in mainstream media. This framing is convenient as it is easier to simply call someone crazy than to ask less straightforward questions about genuine motivation.
Another prominent example of this is how Western media treats Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead of asking why Russia would find it in its strategic interest to invade Ukraine, Western pundits and politicians call Putin a madman and an imperialist who wishes to rebuild the Soviet Union. By promoting these narratives, the media can avoid unauthorized questions about NATO Enlargement and the 2014 coup in Ukraine, both of which are rational explanations for why Russia might consider invading Ukraine.
Historically, Netanyahu has done numerous things that may initially seem erratic or psychotic but make perfect sense when you analyze them through the lens of maintaining power. As I laid out in a previous article, Netanyahu bolstered Hamas and encouraged Qatar to keep funding the organization in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority and prevent a stable Palestinian state from gaining recognition worldwide. By curtailing a unified front in Palestine, Netanyahu laid the groundwork for a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy, which has served his imperialistic ambitions in the current Gaza war.
Netanyahu has also used military action numerous times in the past to maintain his power domestically. For example, in 2019, Bibi used military force to launch strikes against Palestine and other Middle Eastern countries in order to garner far-right support and ensure his re-election. Again in 2021, right before a deadline to form a new government, Netanyahu and Hamas began exchanging missiles, which halted negotiations and reinforced Bibi’s image as a wartime leader, an obvious attempt to remain in power.
Now, Netanyahu is trying to use this same strategy of causing military conflict with Syria in order to avoid legal troubles. By striking Syria under the guise of protecting Druze religious minorities and claiming that he has food poisoning, Netanyahu has bought himself more time by delaying court proceedings until September.
These strikes on Syria come after the fall of the pro-Palestine and anti-Israel Assad government. Many in the upper echelons of U.S. government bureaucracy have breathed a sigh of relief with the new Syrian government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former member of al-Qaeda, which is far too weak and unstable to repel Israel’s illegal land-grab of Syrian territory.
Thus, Netanyahu has successfully escaped justice for his egregious corruption and has preserved his ability to cause chaos and destruction in not just Palestine but in the entire Middle East.
While Netanyahu’s behavior may seem erratic or irrational to many, including those in the White House, it is clear that he is deliberate and calculating. Bibi’s strategy of purposely causing chaos and conflict for political gain is similar to the strategy of “madman theory” employed by President Richard Nixon. This theory, employed by Nixon in the midst of the Cold War, specifically, in the Vietnam War, posits that leaders should confuse and intimidate geopolitical opponents by purposely projecting irrationality.
Madman theory has gained prominence again in the 21st century, with many comparing the foreign policy of President Donald Trump to that of President Nixon. It appears that Netanyahu is also making use of this theory for his political survival.
If the Trump administration is serious about wanting to bring Netanyahu to the table and negotiate an end to the Gaza War, it must not accept the false idea that Bibi is merely an irrational psychopath. To buy into this idea would be to let Bibi win via madman theory and utterly fail to address the threat that Netanyahu poses to the international community. Netanyahu is not erratic, but instead a cold and calculating ideologue hellbent on creating Greater Israel, even if that means massive loss of life. As Sun Tzu put it in the Art of War, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
J.D. Hester is an independent writer born and raised in Arizona. He has previously written for Antiwar.com, Front Porch Republic, and CounterCurrents.org. You can send him an email at josephdhester@gmail.com. Follow him on X @JDH3ster.
