MALAIKA MAHLATSI: In Netanyahu, the Western world created a very dangerous monster

In Netanyahu, the Western world created a very dangerous monster

Last Wednesday, the people of Lebanon entered the gates of a man-made hell. Within a frame of just ten minutes, the apartheid state of Israel launched a hundred simultaneous attacks on sixty targets across Lebanon.

Some of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in central Beirut were razed to their very foundations. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands injured – many of them women and children. The death toll is still climbing, with many people still buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

This horrific bloodbath happened just hours after Hezbollah had agreed to abide by a two-week ceasefire that had been negotiated between the United States and Iran – a ceasefire in which, according to Pakistani negotiators, Lebanon was included. The apartheid state of Israel is no stranger to committing atrocious crimes.

Lebanon, like Syria and Palestine, have had to endure the blood-thirsty actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Zionist regime for years. But what happened in Lebanon on Wednesday was shocking, not only because it was the largest wave of airstrikes in Israel’s war on Lebanon, but because it was the ultimate expression of the monstrosity of what the Western world has created in Netanyahu.

That the apartheid state of Israel is genocidal is not a debate. As of today, the death toll in Gaza exceeds 75 000, with thousands more Palestinians missing and believed dead under the rubble that now lines the entirety of Palestinian territory. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been wounded.

In addition to the direct violence, thousands have died from starvation and lack of medical care. The casualties include thousands of women and children. In addition to the horrific deaths and maiming of people, the destruction of infrastructure throughout Palestine has been absolute.

As of early 2026, over 80 percent of all structures, including roughly 92 percent of housing units, in the Gaza Strip alone, have been damaged or destroyed by the Israeli military.

Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a largely uninhabitable wasteland. Human rights organisations and scholars contend that the destruction is equivalent to a major natural disaster. Beyond homes, mosques and learning institutions, it includes critical water, sanitation, health, and transport infrastructure. It has created a massive humanitarian crisis.

This is who and what Netanyahu’s regime is. Thus, the massacre that occurred in Lebanon on Wednesday, while unexpected given that a ceasefire had been agreed to just hours prior, is not entirely shocking. The apartheid state of Israel has, throughout history, demonstrated its endless capacity for brutality and its complete disregard for international law and even the most basic standards of morality. But while it matters to call the Zionist regime by its proper name – an apartheid state and a settler colonial regime – what matters even more at this juncture is to reflect deeply on what emboldens it.

No other country in the world can commit the crimes that Israel does and suffer no immediate and profound consequences. Consider the response to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, particularly the Global North. The invasion was condemned by the United Nations, and many nations, led by the United States and the Europe Union. They went on to provide military aid to Ukraine. Additionally, severe sanctions were imposed on Russia.

They comprise massive and coordinated measures targeting its financial, energy, and industrial sectors. The assets of the Russian Central Bank were frozen. SWIFT bans were imposed on its banks, as were export controls. Oil and gas imports were banned. All this happened within weeks of the invasion of Ukraine.

Netanyahu alongside the war-mongering Donald Trump, has caused untold suffering with the war in Iran. On his instruction, hundreds of Lebanese people were massacred on Wednesday. While Trump posts threats about ending a civilisation, Netanyahu is doing it.

That his intentions with Palestinians is to decimate and erase their existence is not a debate. And yet, this man who has a warrant of arrest out for him, issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for “alleged” war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, is received with applause in a country that is said to be “the leader of the free world”.

Less than a year after his war on Palestinians began, he received a standing ovation at a joint meeting of Congress in the United States. He has visited the country several times since the war. He was welcome with military honours and a red carpet reception in Hungary, where parliament members from countries in the European Union, including Austria, Spain and France, were present. Few Western nations have taken practical steps to hold Netanyahu and the Israeli government accountable. Many countries trade with Israel, with corporations across the European Union and the United States continuing to sell arms and equipment that enable and support its war effort.

The support of the Western world has emboldened Netanyahu.

The nations who consistently lecture the world about human rights and respect for the rule of law have created a monster in the man. In refusing to condemn the genocide in Palestine, they legitimising him. In stuttering instead of calling a genocide by its name, they ensured that the plight of Palestinian people would be made invisible.

In presenting the apartheid state of Israel as a perpetual victim and completely ignoring that it has, since its formation, systematically and violently dispossessed Palestinian land and occupied many other parts of the region, from Syria to Lebanon.

It has been allowed to do all this by the most powerful nations on earth. And so, when it massacres the people of Lebanon, we must not pretend to be shocked, as though we deem the apartheid state of Israel above cruelty.

This is the monster that has been created by decades of impunity. The violence that we witnessed in Lebanon was not an aberration – it is the organising logic of Zionism and the predictable outcome of lack of consequences.

Malaika is a geographer and researcher who holds a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning. She is a PhD in Geography candidate at the University of Bayreuth in Germany.