When Benjamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a unity government for the war, The costumes chosen by his two set design colleagues caught my attention.. While the Israeli prime minister appeared in his characteristic dark suit, white shirt and blue tie; Both opposition leader Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Yoav Galant wore black shirts. I started researching the choice of color for that shirt., but not finding anything, I decided to tell a friend with contacts at the Israeli consulate. My question (“Is there a reason why they usually wear that black shirt?”), illustrated with the photo of the three of them during the press conference, only elicited laughter and ridicule. “Because it makes them look thinner,” was one of the responses. I didn’t want to insist further (condescension pisses me off, a lot), but I made it clear that that outfit had a reason (whether they knew it or not and wanted to tell me or not)…
If we review Netanyahu’s wardrobe in the last 10 days we will notice the uniform he is adopting and how it has ended up blending in with the look of Gantz and Gallant. Unlike Zelensky’s, which was clear, immediate and explicit (his last message before the war was made in a diplomatic suit and, the next, with Putin’s declaration of war, he began to wear a khaki shirt like another soldier). ; that of the Israeli prime minister has gone more unnoticed because it did not happen overnight. Still affected by corruption, his pacts with the extreme right and a controversial judicial reform that has provoked protests for 40 consecutive weeks, Netanyahu is one of those men who consider themselves untouchable. But his image as a staunch defender of security that has kept him in power for years faded with the Hamas attack on October 7.
And in that scenario, its refined and distant appearance (the crescent drawn with square and bevel gives a good account of his prim and calculating personality) It was not helping him in the national and international assessment that was being made of his management in the face of such a serious crisis. That is why, in his meeting with Joe Biden on October 18, Netanyahu not only took care to take off his tie (closer, informal) but also hugged the president of the United States like a child (see, world, I am also vulnerable like the Gazaris) seeking dad’s comfort.
one step further
For the visit of Olaf Scholz, Rishi Sunak, Emmanuel Macron and other international leaders he went one step further: he put on a black shirt. Combined with black pants, the ‘total black look’ has served him since last week both to chair meetings with his government cabinet, to encourage the troops (with the relevant bulletproof vest as a complement), to appear at press conferences or even for his speeches from the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Visually, Netanyahu is just desperately trying to distinguish himself, but perhaps using the black shirts as a war uniform could cause him even more problems to its so degraded image and war story. Especially in Europe, where a large part of the citizenry condemns the Hamas attack but considers that Israel is not defending itself from Islamic terrorism but taking revenge on the Gazaris (and provoking a genocide).
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The Israeli leader’s black shirt might seem like a sign of mourning, but not even Israelis perceive it that way. In his meeting with Giorgia Meloni, Netanyahu added a black down jacket to his outfit even though it was 25 degrees in Tel Aviv that day… Perhaps the Israeli prime minister was only trying to protect his black shirt from prejudice and insinuations when he shook the hand of his Italian counterpart (who even declared herself an admirer of Mussolini), but once again he ended up making a fool of himself in front of his people. .
In the eyes of others, Netanyahu’s uniform may or may not be interpreted as a successful strategy. But the lack of humanity that he has shown these days as a leader only allows me to remember that “I have a black shirt because my soul is black.” And that man who has a black soul, like so many emotionally disabled people who come into power, for the good of the Israelis, Palestinians and the world in general, should not govern even in his house. #PEACE