Middle East and Africa | In a pickle

Israel’s prime minister does not know where to go

Binyamin Netanyahu may be losing the plot

People gather to stage demonstration to demand resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the return of hostages in Tel Aviv
Photograph: Getty Images
|Jerusalem

Not so long ago, Binyamin Netanyahu was eager to compare himself to Vladimir Putin. In an election campaign in 2019, his party, Likud, proudly paraded the Israeli prime minister in posters alongside Russia’s president and other strongmen. Now Mr Netanyahu is terrified he may join another club alongside Mr Putin: world leaders against whom the International Criminal Court (icc) in The Hague has issued arrest warrants for war crimes.

So worried was Israel’s leader that on April 30th he posted a video online to say that issuing such warrants against senior Israelis would be an “outrage of historic proportions” that would “pour jet fuel on the fires of antisemitism”.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Under a legal gun”

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