‘The world refuses Washington and Netanyahu’s distorted view’

This is apropos a letter to the Editor titled “The world refuses Washington and Netanyahu’s distorted view” carried by the newspaper in recent days.

Other responses were equally pointed. Qatar said Netanyahu’s attacks diverted attention from responsibility for policies on the ground. Turkey’s presidential communications director, Burhanettin Duran, said his accusations could not obscure Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe or international legal proceedings. The answer to criticism was accountability, not an expanding catalogue of enemies.

His treatment of settler killings illustrated the problem. The BBC reported his suggestion that perhaps two or three people were killed annually, then cited UN figures recording hundreds of Palestinians killed in the context of settler attacks since the beginning of 2023. These are human beings, not inconvenient arithmetic. Minimising their deaths diminishes the violence confronting entire communities.

The pager display carried a menace beyond its reference to the operation against Hezbollah. Before an institution dedicated to peace, Netanyahu brandished a reminder that communications devices could become instruments of assassination.

The gesture could be read as a warning to governments walking out or imposing sanctions: defy Israel and consider how far its reach might extend. Operations in Iran, Lebanon, and Syria gave that implied warning its chilling force. This was intimidation dressed as triumph—an exhibition of lethal capability that invited critics to contemplate consequences beyond the diplomatic chamber.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026