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<h1 class="gmail-single_title">'New Middle East\u2019: This is Netanyahu\u2019s real goal in the region</h1>
<div class="gmail-article-author"><h3>By <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/?p=250012"> Ramzy Baroud </a></h3></div>
<p class="gmail-single_date">Sunday 29-June-2025 -<font size="1"> <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/new-middle-east-this-is-netanyahus-real-goal-in-the-region/">https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/new-middle-east-this-is-netanyahus-real-goal-in-the-region/</a></font></p>
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<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu persistently declares his
ambition to \u201cchange the face of the Middle East\u201d. Yet, his repeated
assertions seem to clash with the unfolding reality on the ground.</p>
<p>Netanyahu\u2019s opportunistic relationship with language is now proving
detrimental to his country. The Israeli leader undoubtedly grasps
fundamental marketing principles, particularly the power of strong
branding and consistent messaging. However, for any product to succeed
over time, clever branding alone is insufficient; the product itself
must live up to at least a minimum degree of expectation.</p>
<p>Netanyahu\u2019s \u201cproduct,\u201d however, has proven utterly defective, yet the
75-year-old Israeli Prime Minister stubbornly refuses to abandon his
outdated marketing techniques.</p>
<p>But what exactly is Netanyahu selling?</p>
<p>Long before assuming Israel\u2019s leadership, Netanyahu mastered the art
of repetition \u2013 a technique often employed by politicians to inundate
public discourse with specific slogans. Over time, these slogans are
intended to become \u201ccommon sense\u201d.</p>
<p>As a member of the Knesset in 1992, Netanyahu delivered what appeared
to be a bombshell: Iran was \u201cwithin three to five years\u201d from obtaining
a nuclear bomb. In 1996, he urged the US Congress to act, declaring
that \u201ctime is running out.\u201d</p>
<p>While the US pivoted its attention toward Iraq, following the
September 2001 attacks, Netanyahu evidently hoped to eliminate two
regional foes in one stroke. Following the fall of the Iraqi government
in 2003, Netanyahu channeled all his energy into a new discourse: Iran
as an existential threat.</p>
<p>Between then and now, Iran has remained his primary focus, even as
regional alliances began to form around a discourse of stabilization and
renewed diplomatic ties.</p>
<p>However, the Obama administration, especially during its second term,
was clearly uninterested in another regional war. As soon as Obama left
office, Netanyahu reverted to his old marketing strategy.</p>
<p>It was during Trump\u2019s first term that Netanyahu brought all his
marketing techniques to the forefront. He utilized what is known as
comparative advertising, where his enemies\u2019 \u201cproduct\u201d is denigrated with
basic terms like \u2018barbarism\u2019, \u2018dark age\u2019, and so forth, while his own
is promoted as representing \u2018civilization\u2019, \u2018enlightenment\u2019, and
\u2018progress\u2019.</p>
<p>He also invested heavily in the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)
marketing technique. This entailed spreading negative or misleading
information about others while promoting his own as a far superior
alternative.</p>
<p>This brings us to \u201csolution framing.\u201d For instance, the so-called
\u201cexistential threats\u201d faced by Israel can supposedly be resolved through
the establishment of a \u201cNew Middle East.\u201d For this new reality to
materialize, the US, he argues, would have to take action, not only to
save Israel but also the \u201ccivilized world\u201d as well.</p>
<p>It must be noted that Netanyahu\u2019s \u201cNew Middle East\u201d is not his
original framing. This notion can be traced to a paper published by the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in March 2004. It followed
the US war and invasion of Iraq and was part of the intellectual
euphoria among US and other Western intellectuals seeking to reshape the
Middle East in a way that suited US geopolitical needs.</p>
<p>The Carnegie article sought to expand the definition of the Middle
East beyond the traditional Middle East and North Africa, reaching as
far as the Caucasus and Central Asia.</p>
<p>American politicians adopted this new concept, tailoring it to suit
US interests at the time. It was US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
who largely rebranded \u201cgreater\u201d to \u201cnew,\u201d thus coining the \u201cNew Middle
East,\u201d which she announced in June 2006.</p>
<p>Though Netanyahu embraced the term, he improvised it in recent years.
Instead of speaking of it as a distant objective, he declared that he
was actively in the process of making it a reality. \u201cWe are changing the
face of the Middle East. We are changing the face of the world,\u201d he
triumphantly declared in June 2021.</p>
<p>Even following the events of 7 October 2023, and the Israeli war and
genocide that ensued, Netanyahu never ceased using the term. This time,
however, his emphasis on \u201cchange\u201d rotated between a future possibility
and an active reality. \u201cI ask that you stand steadfast because we are
going to change the Middle East,\u201d he stated on 9 October of that same
year.</p>
<p>And again in September 2024, he proclaimed that Israel was \u201cpursuing\u201d
a plan to \u201cassassinate Hezbollah leaders\u201d with the aim of \u201cchanging the
strategic reality of the Middle East.\u201d And again, in October, December,
and January of this year. In every single instance, he contextualized
the \u201cchange of the Middle East\u201d with bombs and rockets, and nothing
else.</p>
<p>In May, coinciding with a major Israeli bombing of Yemen, he declared
that Israel\u2019s \u201cmission\u201d exceeds that of \u201cdefeating Hamas,\u201d extending to
\u201cchanging the face of the Middle East.\u201d And finally, on 16 June, he
assigned the same language to the war with Iran, this time remaining
committed to the new tweak of adding the word \u201cface\u201d to his new,
envisaged Middle East.</p>
<p>Of course, old branding tactics aside, Netanyahu\u2019s Middle East, much
like the US\u2019 old \u201cgreater Middle East,\u201d remains a pipe dream aimed at
dominating the resource-rich region, with Israel serving the role of
regional hegemon. That said, the events of the last two years have
demonstrated that, although the Middle East is indeed changing, this
transformation is not happening because of Israel. Consequently, the
outcome will most likely not be to its liking.</p>
<p>Therefore, Netanyahu may continue repeating, like a broken record,
old colonial slogans, but genuine change will only happen because of the
peoples of the region and their many capable political players.</p>
<p><em>-Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of the Palestine
Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is \u2018These Chains
Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli
Prisons\u2019. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center
for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and also at the Afro-Middle East
Center (AMEC).</em></p>
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